Throughout the turbulent era of the Persian wars, Athens built a powerful democratic political system that held the city together and made her unique in the world. Since time immemorial, Greek cities had developed power-sharing institutions, as was evident even in reactionary Sparta: there were two kings, a council of elders, and an assembly of citizens. Most cities in Greece had long ago gotten rid of their kings, but the number of full-fledged citizens typically was small, about three thousand, consisting of wealthy landowners, who also owned horses and hence could serve in the cavalry as knights. But in Athens a series of reforms broadened the base of citizenship to include the middle class. Solon instituted the first major reforms, starting in 594 BC. Subsequently his constitution was overthrown by the tyrant Peisistratus in 561. But late in the sixth century Athens rose up against the sons and heirs of the tyrant and drove them out of the city.[35] Cleisthenes then instituted a new round of reforms, starting in 508. He broke up the tribes and clans that had dominated Athenian politics by distributing the demes or boroughs among ten artificially composed tribes, each of which included demes from the plain, the hill, and the coast, with their several economic interests. The general Assembly of citizens would pass laws prepared by the Council of Five Hundred, composed of fifty members chosen from each tribe. Most important, the members of the middle class could serve on the council for the first time. The highest offices were still reserved for aristocrats.[36]
The rise of the middle class coincided with their increasing importance militarily. Whereas the cavalry had dominated the battlefields of archaic Greece, the infantry was now the dominant military power. The armored infantryman, the hoplite, fought in a tight formation, shoulder-to-shoulder in a battle line, usually eight ranks deep. He had a large round shield on his left and a spear in his right hand. The individual heroics of Homeric battles were replaced with the disciplined attack of a massed infantry unit, the phalanx. The Greek phalanx was in its time the irresistible force that neither lightly armed troops nor cavalry could stop. It mowed down Persian soldiers like threshers mowed grain. Except in Sparta, with its virtually professional military, Greek warriors were citizen soldiers who owned their own armor and weapons. They had to have enough money to afford the armor, but not enough to own a horse — the qualification of a knight. Now that the infantry was the military force par excellence, rulers had to take them seriously; if the middle-class hoplites became sufficiently dissatisfied with an aristocratic government, they could strap on their armor and overthrow it—as happened in Athens in 403 BC.
With his reforms, Cleisthenes included the middle class among the active citizens and gained their undying support. He also instituted ostracism, which would shape the government of Athens in the fifth century. At first Cleisthenes went after collaborators and supporters of the tyrant Peisistratus with votes of ostracism. Soon the practice was used to get rid of men who were deemed too powerful and therefore likely to try to foment a coup to make themselves tyrants.[37]
Democracy did not change much in the fifty years between Cleisthenes’ reforms and the ostracism of Cimon, but once he, the leading aristocrat was out of the way, the reformers turned a moderate constitution into a radical democracy. First, Ephialtes, the chief antagonist of Cimon, went after the Council of the Areopagus. This aristocratic body was made up of former archons or magistrates, still drawn exclusively from the aristocracy, who had finished their year in office — much like the Roman Senate. This body served as a kind of Supreme Court, had powers to investigate the lives of citizens, and was the chief institution for resisting democratic reform. Ephialtes stripped the Areopagus of most of its special powers, assigning those to either the Council of Five Hundred or popular law courts. So hostile were the old guard to his reforms that they had Ephialtes assassinated in 461.[38]
At this moment, a gifted young politician who had been an ally of Ephialtes stepped forward onto the stage of history. Pericles would be the leading citizen of Athens for more than thirty years. Although he was a member of the aristocracy on his mother’s side and aloof in his demeanor, he championed democracy and aimed to broaden its reach far beyond what anyone had dreamed.
The whole idea that ordinary people could govern themselves had scarcely occurred to anyone outside Athens, and thus far the idea had inspired only a limited experiment. Indeed, the idea was still surprising in eighteenth century Europe when the American colonies began their own democratic experiment, and its success sent shockwaves through the old monarchies of Europe. Yet the Athenian government would in some ways become more democratic than any constitution before or since.[39] In 458, when Socrates was eleven years old, members of the middle class were allowed to hold the highest magistracies of the state and to be selected for the Council, positions formerly reserved for aristocrats. Moreover, the holders of most offices were now appointed purely by lot, so that any qualified citizen might end up holding high office for a year—whether he wanted that honor or not—as would Socrates himself (see ch. 19* below). The Athenians would not allow so much as an aristocracy of talent.
Pericles instituted pay for those holding offices, which made it financially possible for wage earners (who lived hand-to-mouth) to be absent from their jobs while attending to their government offices. The Areopagus, the former bastion of aristocratic rule, was now limited to judging only cases of homicide. Popular courts handled most other cases. In order to avoid the possibility of bribery or influence, a pool of six thousand jurors was chosen by lot. Of these, a large jury, consisting of hundreds of men, was chosen on the day of a trial, the exact size of the jury to be determined by the nature of the trial, which was always scheduled to last for at most one day. These jurors were paid for their participation. Now, in effect, any citizen could end up serving in high office or on a jury for an important trial. Aristocrats could participate too, but they no longer had any special privileges and were easily outnumbered.[40]
The civil year was divided up into ten periods. The Assembly met in the open air on the broad Pnyx Hill. The first six thousand men to show up constituted the quorum for the day, and since the Assembly met at least four times per period, it was in session at least forty times per year. One of the four meetings was reserved for any citizen to talk about anything he wished to say, whether it was private or public business, on the legislative agenda or not. The Council of Five Hundred acted as an executive body for the Assembly, meeting daily (except for holidays) to prepare bills for consideration and set the agenda of business to be conducted.[41]
The only significant elective office was general of the army.[42] Ten generals were elected annually, one from each tribe. As military leadership required professional skill and experience (unlike government leadership in general!), individuals ran on their civic and military records. Pericles was elected general from his tribe almost every year for thirty years, and it is through this position that he influenced every aspect of government policy. To be sure, his influence far exceeded his actual authority; by the force of his character and the power of his vision, he became the architect of Athenian democracy, empire, foreign policy, and public works.
Athens at her height, at the end of the fifty years of expansion after the Persian War and before the Peloponnesian War, was the cultural capital of Greece, with the most innovative government and the greatest empire of the region. Although we have no censuses from the time, historians estimate that the total population of Athens and its environs was 250,000, which included some 30,000 adult male citizens, about half of whom might live within walking distance of the city and hence be able to participate actively in its political life. Roughly 8,000 citizens held important positions each year, so the political demands on Athenians were high.[43] And that does not count the demands made on citizens for military service. But it was the participatory nature of the government that gave Athens its power and creativity. The future looked bright for the city and its people even as the clouds of war gathered over Greece.
When Socrates came of age, he shared with his fellow citizens the power to govern the great city Pericles had built and the great empire that Cimon and Pericles had created, thanks to a new form of government pioneered by Solon and Cleisthenes and extended by Ephialtes and Pericles. Only in this city could a man like Socrates make such a fuss.
[35].Aristotle Constitution of Athens 8-9, 13-19.
[36].Aristotle Constitution of Athens 20-21.
[37].Aristotle Constitution of Athens 22.1-6.
[38].Aristotle Constitution of Athens 25.
[39]. To be sure, the constitution excluded women and slaves; but those who were counted as citizens were called on to govern their city to a degree never approached by any other state, ancient or modern.
[40].Aristotle Constitution of Athens 27.
[41].Aristotle Constitution of Athens 43.
[42].Aristotle Constitution of Athens 61.
[43]. See Meier 1999:424-425. See also http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_01.shtml . The closest thing to an early census is that of Demetrius of Phaleron around 310 BC (text corrupt here), that reports 21,000 Athenians (adult male native-born citizens?), 10,000 metics (foreign residents), and 400,000 slaves: Athenaeus 6.272c. This comes a century after the time of Pericles and whatever demographic shifts may have happened in the meantime.