David M. Pritchard. Athenian Democracy at War.

2020 ◽  
Vol 125 (5) ◽  
pp. 1937-1938
Author(s):  
Loren J. Samons
Keyword(s):  
Athenian Democracy

A Wolf in the City

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cinzia Arruzza
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Athenian Democracy ◽  
The City ◽  
Shed Light

A Wolf in the City is a study of tyranny and of the tyrant’s soul in Plato’s Republic. It argues that Plato’s critique of tyranny is an intervention in an ancient debate concerning the sources of the crisis of Athenian democracy and the relation between political leaders and the demos in the last decades of the fifth century BCE. The book shows that Plato’s critique of tyranny should not be taken as a veiled critique of the Syracusan tyrannical regime but, rather, as an integral part of his critique of Athenian democracy. The book also offers an in-depth and detailed analysis of all three parts of the tyrant’s soul, and contends that this approach is necessary to both fully appraise the complex psychic dynamics taking place in the description of the tyrannical man and shed light on Plato’s moral psychology and its relation with his political theory.

The Orator in the Theatre

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphaëla Dubreuil
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Athenian Democracy ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Strong Emotion ◽  
Close Study

This chapter explores the image Plutarch created of the end of Athenian Democracy. Its aim is to show that Plutarch conceived of this end through the lens of the theatre, and to explore the origins of this portrayal. It makes this argument through close study of the intersection of theatre and politics in Plutarch’s Life of Phocion. Plutarch expresses the political significance of crucial moments by drawing attention to their theatrical dimension. Theatrical venues, self-presentation, staging, speech, and props are used in order to create an emotional impact on an Athenian audience. Since Plutarch understood theatre in (mostly) Platonic terms, this evaluation is negative. He wishes to depict an Athenian society predisposed to strong emotion, ready to welcome an exuberant tyrant with open arms despite its previous democratic values.

Standing up to the Demos

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Erskine
Keyword(s):  
Athenian Democracy ◽  
Parallel Lives ◽  
Standing Up ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Gaining Insight ◽  
The Way

Plutarch wrote twenty-three Greek Lives in his series of Parallel Lives—of these, ten were devoted to Athenians. Since Plutarch shared the hostile view of democracy of Polybius and other Hellenistic Greeks, this Athenian preponderance could have been a problem for him. But Plutarch uses these men’s handling of the democracy and especially the demos as a way of gaining insight into the character and capability of his protagonists. This chapter reviews Plutarch’s attitude to Athenian democracy and examines the way a statesman’s character is illuminated by his interaction with the demos. It also considers what it was about Phocion that so appealed to Plutarch, first by looking at his relationship with the democracy and then at the way he evokes the memory of Socrates. For him this was not a minor figure, but a man whose life was representative of the problems of Athenian democracy.

Polybius on ‘Classical Athenian Imperial Democracy’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craige B. Champion
Keyword(s):  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Second Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Athenian Democracy ◽  
Political Analysis

This chapter makes two contributions to our understanding of Polybius’ representation of the Athenian democracy. First, it shows that Polybius’ negative general portrayal of Athens in his political analysis in Book 6 is frequently at odds with his apparent admiration of the Athenians as reflected in his accounts of Athenian diplomacy in the historical narrative. Second, and more importantly, the paper contextualizes the characterization of the Athenian politeia in Book 6 within Polybius’ generally negative depictions of radical democratic states (ochlocracy, in Polybius’ terms). Here it is necessary to note the political meaning of the term ‘democracy’ in the mid-second century BCE, in order to understand how Polybius can condemn the Athenian politeia while praising the qualities of δημοκρατία‎.

Mortal Democracy and Plato’s Apology

2020 ◽  
pp. 009059172098295
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Barringer
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Partial Transformation ◽  
Critical Space ◽  
Athenian Democracy ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
Democratic Practice

The Apology is often read as showing a conflict between democracy and philosophy. I argue here that Socrates’s defense critically engages deeply political Athenian conventions of death, showing a mutual entanglement between Socratic philosophy and democratic practice. I suggest that Socrates’s aporetic insistence within the Apology that we “do not know if death is a good or a bad thing” structures a critical space of inquiry that I term “mortal ignorance;” a space from which Socrates reapproaches settled questions of death’s appropriate place in political life, ultimately prompting a partial transformation of Athenian democracy. I argue here that Socratic mortal ignorance supports a self-reflective politics of death, one which produces many potential responses and accepts the impossibility of closing off death’s meaning in any final sense—an aporia suitable for the unending, precarious work of democratic politics.

Entangling Plato: A Guide through the Political Theory Archive

2021 ◽  
pp. 009059172199807
Author(s):  
Liam Klein ◽  
Daniel Schillinger
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
Athenian Democracy

Political theorists have increasingly sought to place Plato in active dialogue with democracy ancient and modern by examining what S. Sara Monoson calls “Plato’s democratic entanglements.” More precisely, Monoson, J. Peter Euben, Arlene Saxonhouse, Christina Tarnopolsky, and Jill Frank approach Plato as both an immanent critic of the Athenian democracy and a searching theorist of self-governance. In this guide through the Political Theory archive, we explore “entanglement approaches” to the study of Plato, outlining their contribution to our understanding of Plato’s political thought and to the discipline of political theory.

CATALYSTS OF BARBARIZATION AND DEBARBARIZATION IN CLASSICAL ATHENS

2021 ◽  
pp. 151-168
Author(s):  
И.Е. СУРИКОВ
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
Radical Democracy ◽  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
Athenian Democracy ◽  
Reverse Motion

В качестве факторов, способствовавших нарастанию варваризации в Афинах второй полвины V в. до н.э., в статье указываются создание Афинской морской державы, движение софистов, конфликт поколений, Пелопоннесская война, наступление «эры демагогов». Обратное же движение в сторону деварваризации (с самого конца Vв. до н.э.) было связано в первую очередь с возрождением уважения к законности, с укреплением стабильности и порядка. Новая афинская демократия IV в. до н.э., которую одни специалисты считают «усовершенствованным» вариантом по сравнению с демократией предшествующего столетия, а другие, напротив, ее упадком, кризисом, была в основном свободна как от охлократических, так и от олигархических тенденций; она может с полным основанием быть определена как умеренная демократия, в отличие от радикальной демократии второй половины V в. до н.э. Конфликтов не то чтобы не было, но их старались разрешать мирным путем, по возможности достигая компромисса и избегая насилия. The article cites as factors, which promoted the growth of barbarization in Athens in the last half of the 5thcentury B.C., the following ones: the emergence of the Athenian Empire, the sophistic movement, the conflict of generations, the Peloponnesian War, and the coming of the “era of demagogues”. As to the reverse motion towards debarbarization (from the very end of the 5th century B.C.), it was connected, in the first instance, with revival of the lawfulness’ authority and with strengthening order and stability. The new Athenian democracy of the 4thcentury B.C. (which is considered by some scholars an “improved” version as compared with democracy of the previous century, but by other scholars, on the contrary, its decline and crisis) was in general free from both ochlocratic and oligarchic tendencies; it may be with good reason defined as a moderate democracy, as distinct from the radical democracy of the last half of the 5thcentury B.C. It is not to say that there were no conflicts, but people sought to solve them by peaceful way, as far as possible, to reach compromises and to avoid violence.

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