Athenaion politeia

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In the text Athēnaion politeia ( Ἀθηναίων πολιτεία "The State of the Athenians") the time in ancient Athens from Solon to the reign of the thirty (end of the 7th century to 403 BC) is treated in a historical overview . This is followed by a detailed description of the officials and institutions. The work is one of the most important sources on the history and constitution of Athens.

To this day it is still a matter of dispute who is the author of the script. In ancient times it was usually attributed to Aristotle . Although there are some similarities with Aristotelian politics , there are also several strong substantive differences. In research, therefore, a student of Aristotle is often assumed to be the author who wrote the work soon after 330 BC. Should have written.

Content and structure

State order before Drakon

In the first three chapters, the state order before Dracon is described, i.e. the period that lasted until the 7th century BC. Chr. Is enough. The form of government at the time was the oligarchy, which means that rule was in the hands of a small group, in this case the nobles and the rich. There was a clear division between the noble and the ordinary masses. Many poor even lived in slavery. The appointments were arranged according to origin and wealth. The most important offices, which are also used in the further course of history, were: Basileis , Polemarchs and the 9 Archons (at this point they were still carried out for life, later for 10 years). While the offices of the Basileis and the Polemarchon were traditional, that of the Archon was new and they had to take care of new tasks. The Areopagite Council had the task of overseeing the law and was able to impose penalties for offenses. It was composed of former archons and the office was carried out for life.

Form of government under Drakon

Under Drakon the current law was codified, i. H. unwritten common law became written laws. Political power lay with the nobility and, since Dracon, with the rich bourgeoisie, the hoplites . The hoplites were armed soldiers who had to pay for their own armament.

The hoplites selected archons and tamiai (treasurers) from those who had a debt-free life and property of no less than 10 mines and strategists (generals) and hipparchs (equestrian leaders) from those who had a debt-free life, 100 mines, 2 legitimate children over ten years and owned a wife. The council consisted of 401 men and the members were drawn. You can never hold the same office twice before going through all the others, explains the author.

Form of government under Solon

After the people rose up against the nobles, a long civil war ensued. Solon was installed with extraordinary powers to end the civil war. In his plea for the end of the war, he mainly accused the rich because they did not reduce their claims. He banned loans and made debt relief laws. The author praises Solon, he is honorable and the welfare of the polis is his priority. Despite complaints from both sides, he never let himself be dissuaded from his path and always stood between the parties. He established a constitution and many new laws, many laws lost their validity. The basis for the reorganization of the state was an appraisal of assets, according to which he divided the people into four classes depending on the ownership of harvest products. He also arranged the land in four phyls . The council consisted of 400 men (100 per phyle from the first three classes) and had the task of overseeing the law, bringing criminals to justice and punishing those who subvert democracy. He also introduced three people-friendly measures:

  1. Abolition of Debt
  2. Anyone can seek retribution
  3. Referral of legal proceedings to the court

Since many lawsuits had to be carried out due to many unclear laws, the people had a great deal of decision-making power.

Solon, who had drawn hatred from both parties through his non-partisan decisions, went on a ten-year educational trip. In Solon's absence there was initially four years of peace, then civil war broke out again, during which initially no archon was there. Later, however, after this office had been reinstated, an archon was forcibly evicted. Thereupon ten new archons were elected (five nobles, three peasants, two artisans), but they were at enmity to one another because they were dissatisfied for various reasons. At that time there were three parties who sat down according to their living situation:

  • the coastal inhabitants, their leader was Megakles , stood for the middle constitution
  • the inhabitants of the plain, their leader was Lycurgus , stood for the oligarchy
  • the inhabitants of the hilly landscape, their leader was Peisistratos , initially stood for popular rule.

It was precisely this Peisistratos who rose up against the people and occupied the Acropolis. When even Solon could not dissuade him with his request, he took the rule. Although he was expelled after the unification of the other two leaders (556 BC), he returned to power twelve years later through a ruse by Megacles. Another seven years later he was again expelled from Lykurg and Megakles.

Tyranny among Peisistratus and his sons

Despite the resulting tyranny, Peisistratos administered the community moderately and was generally very philanthropic. He took care of the entire community on his own, the other citizens should only take care of private matters. There was always peace and quiet and the extensive cultivation even increased the income. He died in 528 BC. During his lifetime he had two wives and four sons, from whom Hippias took power due to his age and political talents. The tyranny grew tougher after an attempt at murder by the Athenian lovers Harmodios and Aristogeiton at the Panathenaic Islands failed. Hipparchus desired Harmodios, but the latter rejected him, whereupon Hipparchus the sister of Harmodios publicly refuses to take part in the pageant of the Panathenaia. This was viewed as a defamation. The two conspirators planned to kill Hipparchus. The assassination failed in part, because only Hipparchus was killed while Hippias survived: As a result, the rule of Hippias became tougher. The Alkmeonids were able to move in with the help of the Spartans and the tyranny was overthrown and the people took power as well as the Acropolis .

From Kleisthenes to the end of the Persian Wars

A fight ensued between Kleisthenes and Isagoras . Since Kleisthenes was initially inferior to the political party of Isagoras, he pulled the people on his side with the promise to transfer control of the state to him. In response, Isagoras called the Spartan king Cleomenes and persuaded him to banish the family of the Alkmeionids and 700 other unpleasant families from Athens. After this happened, Isagoras tried to dissolve the still existing council of 400 and to replace it with 300 of its loyal followers. The council and the people refused, and Isagoras and Cleomenes fled to the Acropolis. After a two-day siege, Isagoras and his followers were granted free retreat. Kleisthenes had asserted himself as the advocate of the people. He transferred the rule of the state to the people, who took control of the state. Kleisthenes carried out the following measures: He divided all citizens into ten newly structured phyle and formed the council of 500, which was composed of 50 citizens from each phyle. He also divided the country according to Demen into 30 parts according to geographical areas. He mixed three different tritty (third) from city (asty), inland (mesogeion) and the coast (paralia) to form a new phyle. As a result, the attic, which was divided into 30 treads, was structured into ten new phyls. In doing so, he broke with the gentilian structures of the old four phyls, since he completely restructured the new phyls and not according to gender. In addition, new laws were introduced, such as the court of fragments (ostracism), which u. a. resulted in the expulsion of political opponents. The council was bound by an oath, and the archon appointment was made by beanless . The number of candidates determined the total number of white and black "beans" (bean-shaped balls of lots), the number of positions to be filled determined the number of white beans. A bean was pulled face down for each candidate. If she was white, if he was elected, if she was black, if he was eliminated. From the middle of the 5th century BC onwards, the elaborate lottery procedure, in which many hundreds or thousands of candidates had to be drawn, The cleroterion .

Takeover of the city tour by the Council of Areopagus after the Persian Wars

Because the Council of Areopagus had helped so much during the wars, it was so powerful afterwards. At the head of the state were Aristeides and Themistocles , who ruled the people well because of their skillful division of labor. On the advice of Aristeides, the people moved more and more into the urban areas and took over power in the sea ​​alliance .

Fall of Areopagus by Ephialtes

At first the power of the Areopagus continued to exist; However, after the attacks of the Ephialtes , which led to trials against many council members or even destroyed them, power noticeably dwindled. By a ruse Ephialtes came to power together with Themistocles; the power of the Areopagus was thus broken. When Ephialtes lost his life a little later after an assassination attempt, the state order dissolved further through the action of a few demagogues. Since the upper class had no leader, the very young and inexperienced Kimon came to the head of the people.

Lore history

The Athenaion politeia was discovered relatively late: towards the end of the 19th century, the British Museum acquired several papyrus sheets (London, British Museum, Pap. 131) on which the writing was preserved. The paleographer Frederic G. Kenyon published the first critical edition of the text in 1891 and sparked a great research movement. The authenticity and uniformity of the font has been partially disputed, but is now widely accepted. Shortly after the Editio princeps of Kenyon, leading scholars from all over Europe wrote further editions and monographs on the work, including John Edwin Sandys in Cambridge, Georg Kaibel and Bruno Keil in Strasbourg, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff in Göttingen and Valerian von Schoeffer in Saint Petersburg .

Text output

Translations

  • Aristotle: The State of the Athenians . Translated by Martin Dreher . Reclam, Stuttgart 1993.
  • Aristotle: works in German translation . Founded by Ernst Grumach , edited by Hellmut Flashar . Volume 10, Part 1: State of the Athenians . Translated and done by M. Chambers. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1990.
  • The Athenian Constitution. Written in the School of Aristotle. Edited, translated and commented by Peter John Rhodes . Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 2017, ISBN 978-1-78694-837-3 .

literature

  • Peter J. Rhodes : A Commentary on the Aristotelian "Athenaion Politeia". Clarendon Press, Oxford 1993, ISBN 0-19-814942-5 .
  • Anna Santoni: La Constitution des Athéniens. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Supplement. Éditions du Center National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-271-06175-X , pp. 203-207 (research report).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ In summary, see the article Athenaion politeia. In: The Oxford Classical Dictionary . 4th ed. Oxford 2012, p. 195.
  2. ↑ Jochen Bleicken : The Athenian Democracy. 4th, completely revised and significantly expanded edition. Schöningh, Paderborn 1995, p. 315 f.
  3. ↑ See London, British Museum, Papyrus 131 in: British library digitized Manusripts .
  4. ↑ ΑΘΗΝΑΙΩΝ ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑ. Aristotle on the constitution of Athens . British Museum 1891 ( 2nd edition 1891 ). Translation of Kenyon: Aristotle on the Athenian constitution. Translated with introduction and notes . Bell, London 1891 ( online ).
  5. ^ Aristotle's constitution of Athens . Macmillan, London 1893 ( online ); 2nd edition 1912 ( online ).
  6. ↑ Style and text of the ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑ ΑΘΗΝΑΙΩΝ . Weidmann, Berlin 1893 ( online ).
  7. ^ The Solonic Constitution in Aristotle's Constitutional History of Athens . Gaertner, Berlin 1892 ( online ).
  8. ^ Aristotle and Athens . 2 volumes. Weidmann, Berlin 1893 ( Volume 1 , Volume 2 ).