Democracy Beyond Athens: Popular Government in the Greek Classical Age by Eric W. Robinson (review)
- Democracy Beyond Athens: Popular Government in the Greek Classical Age by Eric W. Robinson
There were democratic governments outside of Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries BC—many of them—and for a fair number (though still only a fraction) there exists at least some evidence as to their nature. Robinson meticulously surveys the sources, literary, epigraphical, and archaeological, for cities on the Greek mainland such as Argos, in the north and west (for example, in Sicily), and in the east (for instance, Byzantium and Rhodes) and reveals how widespread dêmokratia really was. Why did it spread so widely? Not just because of Athenian influence, Robinson argues, for other states were even more active in promoting it. He highlights what he calls “peer polity interaction,” including travel, meeting at common festivals, and the movements of professional sophists. In a dêmokratia, the people were supreme in the assembly and the law courts, and freedom and equality were prized (though, contrary to a common view, naval power was not a principal feature). There is necessarily much technical detail, but the cumulative evidence is impressive. Robinson has filled out the picture of ancient democracies, their origins, varied institutions, and crises, and the results should be of interest to all.
David Konstan is professor of classics at New York University and author of The Emotions of the Ancient Greeks; Before Forgiveness: The Origins of a Moral Idea; Some Aspects of Epicurean Psychology; Pity Transformed; Friendship in the Classical World; Sexual Symmetry; Greek Comedy and Ideology; Roman Comedy; and Catullus’s Indictment of Rome.
