Classical Athens saw the rise of an achievement unparalleled in history. Perikles, Aischylos, Sophokles, Plato, Demosthenes, and Praxiteles represent just a few of the statesmen and philosophers, playwrights ...
Before democracy, from the 8th to the 6th century B.C., Athens was prosperous economically but no more significant than many other city-states in Greece. Silver deposits south of Athens, quarries of fine ...
By the early 6th century B.C. social tensions in Athens had become acute, pitting the poorer citizens against rich and powerful landowners. Many citizens were reduced to the status of share croppers, ...
As happened in many other Greek states, a tyrant arose in Athens in the 6th century B.C. His name was Peisistratos, and after several unsuccessful attempts he seized power in 546 B.C. and ruled until ...
In 514 B.C. the tyrant Hipparchos was stabbed to death. The murder, actually the result of a love feud, was quickly deemed a political act of assassination and the perpetrators, Harmodios and Aristogeiton, ...
Kleisthenes instituted a crucial reform, the reorganization of the citizenry into new administrative units called phylai (tribes). In his attempt to break up the aristocratic power structure, Kleisthenes ...
Each tribe was divided into three parts, and each third (trittys) was from one of the three regions of Attica, plain, coast, or hills. Every trittys was itself made up of several smaller units called ...
All Athenian citizens had the right to attend and vote in the Ekklesia, a full popular assembly which met about every 10 days. All decrees (psephismata) were ratified by the Ekklesia before becoming law ...
The Athenian legislature also included a deliberative body known as the Boule. It was made up of 500 members -- 50 from each of the 10 tribes -- who were chosen by lot and served for the period of one ...
The senators administered their meetings themselves. Each tribal contingent in the Boule served in rotation for a period of 35 or 36 days as the Prytaneis, or Executive Committee. During their time in ...
The popular courts, with juries of no fewer than 201 jurors and as many as 2,500, heard a variety of cases. The courts also had an important constitutional role in wielding ultimate authority by their ...
The jurors for each trial were chosen from a large body of citizens available for jury duty for the period of one year. At the beginning of the year, each juror was given a bronze pinakion, a plaque that ...
Litigants spoke on their own behalf, although occasionally using speeches prepared by trained professionals; skillful rhetoric was necessary in order to sway a jury. The speeches written by several noted ...
After the speeches and other evidence had been presented, the members of the jury voted by casting ballots. A series of vase paintings of the early 5th century B.C. show a mythological story, the vote ...
Soon after their victory over the Persians at the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C., the Athenians began the practice of ostracism, a form of election designed to curb the power of any rising tyrant. They ...
A group of ostraka found together in a pit on the North Slope of the Acropolis is of special interest. There were 190 ostraka, mostly the round feet of drinking cups, all inscribed with the name of Themistokles ...
From the very beginning, the Athenians were compelled to fight for their new democracy. Their dramatic victories over the Boiotians and Chalkidians in 506 B.C. led many to attribute Athenian military ...
With thousands of kilometers of coastline and hundreds of islands, the Greek world was likely to be dominated only by a naval power. A generation after the establishment of democracy Athens became such ...
The economy of Athens was supervised by numerous boards of officials in charge of the mint, the marketplace, weights and measures, and the grain and water supplies. Most of these officials held office ...
There was no attempt in Classical Athens to separate church and state. Altars and shrines were intermingled with the public areas and buildings of the city. A single magistrate, the archon Basileus or ...
The philosopher Sokrates was one of many Athenians critical of the people and their control over affairs of state. His probing public debates with fellow citizens led to his trial for impiety and corrupting ...
Western drama was an Athenian invention which developed late in the 6th century B.C. out of the festivals celebrated in honor of the god Dionysos. Originally held in the Agora, the plays were soon transferred ...
In 338 B.C. Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander defeated the Athenians and other Greek states in a battle at Chaironeia in central Greece. In the following year (337/6 B.C.) the Athenians passed ...
Numerous people resident in Athens and Attica had little part in the political life of the state. Most glaring by modern standards was the exclusion of women, although a similar exclusion persisted into ...
Also excluded from political participation were two other large segments of the population: slaves and metics (resident aliens).
Slavery was common in antiquity, and the Athenians used thousands of slaves ...
Our understanding of the workings and history of Athenian democracy comes from a variety of sources. Most useful, perhaps, are the ancient literary texts that survive, many of which have been cited repeatedly ...
Searching for models for the new government they were creating, America's Founding Fathers studied both the democracy of Athens and the republic of Rome, but they favored the latter. In The Federalist ...
Joins P 29374. Broken on all sides. Reused fragment of pan tile.
On black surface: ΑΛΚΙΒΙΑΔΗΣ ΚΛΕΙΝΙΟ
Coarse beige clay. Crossroads enclosure, layer 10. Protect from abrasion. 1766 Leica, 87-185, 84-7-19 ... 27 March 1972
Fragment from the handle of a large coarseware jar or amphora, oval in section, broken at both ends.
Two lines of text running along length of handle:
Orange clay with light inclusions, covered with ... 18 May 1981
