Ancient Athenian Primary Sources

There are several reasons why I conclude that Athens did not have a commonly viewed democracy. First, only men could vote according to the law or constitution. It was necessary for men to have both parents as citizens, furthermore men needed to be free born, or not slaves (Document B). Men

In this paper, I intend to show that ancient Athenian democracy influenced western political thought, specifically, western democracies. By influencing such modern day democracies, ancient Greek culture remains a presence in contemporary life.

Democracy, the form of government in which there is a rule by the people, is said to have originated and thrived in the classical period of Athens, from 500-350 B.C.. Democracy inherently gave all that were considered citizens power to participate in politics in theory. That being said, it is highly debated as to how much power the people, also known as the demos, exercised in this democracy. Many practices and informal institutions can be said to have limited the power of the demos. The democracy in Athens can be proven to have been a democracy in theory yet not in practice, as can be proven through a variety of primary sources recounting Athenian political institutions and practices. Such primary sources that demonstrate this include Herodotus’

Today, much of the world’s governments have converted to democracies. In the Ancient World, there was only one truly notable example of a democratic society: The City-State of Athens. This is actually the birthplace of democracy, where instead of the rich or powerful ruling, it was the citizens of the city-state that held the power. This advanced way of government was so effective and well structured, it even laid the foundations for the development of our own democracy, right here in the United States, over 2,000 years in the future. Prior to Athens’s collapse during the Peloponnesian War, it truly had an efficient and very organized system of government.

Democracy, the form of government in which there is a rule by the people, is said to have originated and thrived in the classical period of Athens, from 500-350 B.C.. Democracy inherently gave all that were considered citizens power to participate in politics. That being said, it is highly debated as to how much power the people, also known as the demos, exercised in this democracy. Many practices and informal institutions can be said to have limited the power of the demos. The democracy in Athens could be said to have been a democracy in theory yet not in practice, as can be proven through a variety of primary sources recounting Athenian political institutions and practices. Such primary sources that can demonstrate this include Herodotus’ History, Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War, and Demosthenes’ Oration Against Eubulides.

In our document based readings we learned a about how Rome and Athens varied in their approach to Government, Citizenship, and Social cast rights that their citizens were able to obtain. In documents A, B, C, and E all provide example as to how Athens strict rules allowed Athens to have the best system and , also become the longest lasting City-State.

democracy is a form of government in which people come together and make laws for the benefit of the country for example, here in the united states people have the right to vote, have equal rights, pursuit of happiness and practice in any religion of your choice. ancient athens did not have a true democracy. In ancient athens Women, free foreigners and slaves were excluded from voting, the government body could decide if you were a citizen or not. Also, women weren't allowed to vote unless they married a citizen. Therefor there constitution did not favor democracy.

When evaluating the government of ancient Athens, some might say that it was a democracy, however, it can be better described as an oligarchy: a form of government in which a small group of people has the power and control (Doc. D by Mogens Herman Hansen). A democracy takes all the citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account, unlike an oligarchy that only takes the male citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account. Thus, Athens is more similar to an oligarchy than a democracy. The people of Athens also decide as a whole what the best government for their city-state was, as opposed to a democracy where the people elect representatives to make decisions for them and their city-state. Athens could be seen as not a true democracy because of the lack of basic democratic rules and methods such as what they define democracy as, who is able to vote, and how they vote.

Democracy is defined as “rule by the people”. The last paragraph of Document B says that the Athens elected all government officials through lot, not voting by the people. This is one reason that Ancient Athens cannot be considered truly democratic.

It is important to note that primary and secondary sources have differing levels of reliability. Primary sources originate from the times of the ancient Greek people, whilst secondary sources have emerged in more modern times. Primary sources show variation in myths, which is due to several factors; myths were never written down and were only orally presented thus pieces may be left out or altered when they weren’t remembered, also the variation is in part due to the fact that people who told the tales often exaggerated to make their version of the story more interesting, and finally the nature of the Greek religion meant that there was no one correct version of the myths and hence contributes significantly to the variation seen. Another issue for primary sources is that fact that they were not traditionally written in English, thus there may be minor errors in translation. However, these factors are not significant enough to drastically reduce the reliability of these sources, especially when compared to secondary sources. Secondary sources are

The following documents will argue why Athens was a democracy, and why the Greek city truly gave all the power it had to it’s citizens. All the following documents come from reputable sources and documents based from Ancient Athens and Greece itself..

Mythology was very huge in Ancient Greece. There are so many different folktales and myths

Greek democracy was best developed in the city-state of Athens from where the very word “democracy”, meaning “the rule of the people” stems. People ‘ruled’ by electing officials through lot and making important decisions by majority rule. Democracy was direct, meaning that the Athenians “allowed the whole citizenry to assemble in the central eklisia, or the equivalent today of the main city hall, to vote on important issues” (Makedon 1995). In this sense, Athenian democracy differed from representative democracy that is currently prevalent in most states, in which officials are elected through democratic vote and then given authority to make decisions for the people. In Athens, elected officials were paid, but the pay was very low so that it compared with the wages of the poorest citizens and only covered the compensation of their time and effort.

The last Olympic swimmer just touched the wall and the race has ended. Cameras are replaying every single movement from the race and a winner has been clearly decided. Just as these Olympic swimmers will gain a medal for placing, ancient Athens had numerous accomplishments of its own. Athens “prosperity … was due in large part to its stable and effective government” (SOURCE 1). When analyzing the history of ancient Athens, is easy to see how the accomplishments of a democracy, Greek philosophy, and Greek literature all shape Athens.

The first example of the relationship between the Athenians and their democracy during the golden age was the diversity of political views that the Athenians followed. Too start in document 3 written by Isocrates an Athenian political statesman, orator, and writer and made in the year 346 BCE and the point they are trying to get across is that back then they did not have a political system/government which in turn made the people do whatever they wanted which was bad. Then in document 4 written by Aeschines an Athenian political statesmen, orator, and writer, and made in the year 330 BCE. The author's point of view from this document is that how the three forms of government, autocracy, oligarchy, and democracy work and the principles of them are. Also in document 5 written by Thucydides an Athenian warrior, statesmen, and historian wrote in the year 410 BCE, what the author is trying to say it all the reason why democracies are good and the outcomes of it. Finally, in document 9 written by Aristotle in Aristotle’s Politics published in the year 326 BCE this document is about the author's hatred towards tyranny.