Today’s BLOG writing grows out of recent conversations with my Athenian friend Antonis who knows Greek history far better than I do. We agree that both the contemporary American crisis in government and Greece's crisis as a member of the European Union contain echoes of civic problems in the sixth century BCE. I participated today in a demonstration in which more than 1500 people marched from Children’s Park over to Fifth Avenue and up Fifth Avenue to Broadway to protest the coddling of Wall Street profiteers. As I walked with the crowd in San Diego I could easily imagine myself in Athens a long time ago... or today.
Since the first serious attempts that we know from history at forming a democracy, a definition of the term (in Greek the literal meaning is “rule of the people”) depends on who is using it and in what context and for what reasons. That’s the way it’s been since democracy was first suggested by the Greek statesman Solon as an alternative to tyranny. Few words representing ideas have regularly undergone more permutations than democracy. Having been born into an aristocratic family during a time when Athens was in a state of violence and confusion at the beginning of the sixth century BCE, Solon was an unlikely person to come up with the idea that rule by the people would be better for the state than rule by a committee or rule by a tyrant. Solon wasn’t just a well-to-do Athenian. He developed his ideas about government by studying conditions in the state of Attica which was under the general rule of an oligarchy that had appointed as archon of Athens a man named Draco (whose name we still use in describing especially severe and harsh laws). Draco was charged with the task of developing a system of laws that would bring order to the city state of Athens. His system mostly addressed the problems caused by criminal behavior, and the penalties were so severe and cruel that the general population cried out for reform.
Solon recognized that the worst problems were caused by a deepening rift between the various classes of society. The right to hold public office required noble birth. Commoners were second-class citizens denied participation in government. The poorest inhabitants enjoyed no political rights whatsoever. Many of the people of Athens had come as immigrants from other states; some were slaves. While a few non-citizens might grow rich through trade or manufacture, most lived in desperate poverty. Many Athenian citizens lived in abject poverty. Outside the city tenant farmers had to hand over most of their crop to a noble landlord, leaving only enough for subsistence living in abject poverty. To farm a noble family’s land, a tenant had to give up personal freedom. In the city most Athenians were forced to borrow to feed their families, and as collateral they would pledge their personal freedom. When a debt came due and a debtor couldn’t pay, he became the creditor’s slave, an intolerable disgrace for any free-born Athenian.
Solon was no slouch. His accomplishments were known through Attica and the other city-states. As a general in 600 BCE he had led Athenian armies to victory against the Megarians, recapturing the key coastal city of Salmis. He was a masterful politician and, most significantly, a poet. He was named chief archon, the state’s highest official, following the unhappy period under the Athenian civil code laid down a generation earlier by the magistrate Dracon when a person could be put to death for stealing a cabbage. Solon drew up a new constitution and launched a program of social reform. All debts were canceled or reduced; all debtor-slaves were freed. Solon lightened the penalties and introduced new provisions for the care of widows and orphans. He established a court of appeals and people’s tribunals, where judges were selected by lot from the general citizenry. The balance of power within the political system changed dramatically. All free men were included in government.
Feeling considerable indignation and sadness, I stop today’s BLOG writing at this point. The last sentence in my previous paragraph reflects the fact that Solon’s system included “all free men” in his democracy. Women weren’t considered citizens. My intention today is to continue to study the beginnings of a governmental system named democracy and to try to understand, even with its continual permutations in the governance of my own country, how ordinary citizens like me and my family and friends can try to attain what Solon apparently wanted for the citizens of Athens... this time including women and citizens with no property or other assets. Poetry for Solon was, as it is for me, a way to entertain himself. He also used poetry to express what he considered to be important out in the general marketplace of ideas. Not many of his poems survived the twenty-five-hundred years since he wrote them. I’m glad we still have the one that follows.
The man whose riches satisfy his greed
Is not more rich for all those heaps and hoards
Than some poor man who has enough to feed
And clothe his body with such as god affords.
I have no use for men who steal and cheat;
The fruit of evil poisons those who eat.
Some wicked men are rich, some good men poor,
But I would rather trust in what's secure;
Our virtue sticks with us and makes us strong,
But money changes owners all day long.
Since the first serious attempts that we know from history at forming a democracy, a definition of the term (in Greek the literal meaning is “rule of the people”) depends on who is using it and in what context and for what reasons. That’s the way it’s been since democracy was first suggested by the Greek statesman Solon as an alternative to tyranny. Few words representing ideas have regularly undergone more permutations than democracy. Having been born into an aristocratic family during a time when Athens was in a state of violence and confusion at the beginning of the sixth century BCE, Solon was an unlikely person to come up with the idea that rule by the people would be better for the state than rule by a committee or rule by a tyrant. Solon wasn’t just a well-to-do Athenian. He developed his ideas about government by studying conditions in the state of Attica which was under the general rule of an oligarchy that had appointed as archon of Athens a man named Draco (whose name we still use in describing especially severe and harsh laws). Draco was charged with the task of developing a system of laws that would bring order to the city state of Athens. His system mostly addressed the problems caused by criminal behavior, and the penalties were so severe and cruel that the general population cried out for reform.
Solon recognized that the worst problems were caused by a deepening rift between the various classes of society. The right to hold public office required noble birth. Commoners were second-class citizens denied participation in government. The poorest inhabitants enjoyed no political rights whatsoever. Many of the people of Athens had come as immigrants from other states; some were slaves. While a few non-citizens might grow rich through trade or manufacture, most lived in desperate poverty. Many Athenian citizens lived in abject poverty. Outside the city tenant farmers had to hand over most of their crop to a noble landlord, leaving only enough for subsistence living in abject poverty. To farm a noble family’s land, a tenant had to give up personal freedom. In the city most Athenians were forced to borrow to feed their families, and as collateral they would pledge their personal freedom. When a debt came due and a debtor couldn’t pay, he became the creditor’s slave, an intolerable disgrace for any free-born Athenian.
Solon was no slouch. His accomplishments were known through Attica and the other city-states. As a general in 600 BCE he had led Athenian armies to victory against the Megarians, recapturing the key coastal city of Salmis. He was a masterful politician and, most significantly, a poet. He was named chief archon, the state’s highest official, following the unhappy period under the Athenian civil code laid down a generation earlier by the magistrate Dracon when a person could be put to death for stealing a cabbage. Solon drew up a new constitution and launched a program of social reform. All debts were canceled or reduced; all debtor-slaves were freed. Solon lightened the penalties and introduced new provisions for the care of widows and orphans. He established a court of appeals and people’s tribunals, where judges were selected by lot from the general citizenry. The balance of power within the political system changed dramatically. All free men were included in government.
Feeling considerable indignation and sadness, I stop today’s BLOG writing at this point. The last sentence in my previous paragraph reflects the fact that Solon’s system included “all free men” in his democracy. Women weren’t considered citizens. My intention today is to continue to study the beginnings of a governmental system named democracy and to try to understand, even with its continual permutations in the governance of my own country, how ordinary citizens like me and my family and friends can try to attain what Solon apparently wanted for the citizens of Athens... this time including women and citizens with no property or other assets. Poetry for Solon was, as it is for me, a way to entertain himself. He also used poetry to express what he considered to be important out in the general marketplace of ideas. Not many of his poems survived the twenty-five-hundred years since he wrote them. I’m glad we still have the one that follows.
The man whose riches satisfy his greed
Is not more rich for all those heaps and hoards
Than some poor man who has enough to feed
And clothe his body with such as god affords.
I have no use for men who steal and cheat;
The fruit of evil poisons those who eat.
Some wicked men are rich, some good men poor,
But I would rather trust in what's secure;
Our virtue sticks with us and makes us strong,
But money changes owners all day long.
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