3 – Athenian Democracy is not the Oldest in the World
It is often stated that the Athenians (namely Cleisthenes) invented democracy in around 508 BC (yet another disputed date) but this probably isn’t the case. Leaving aside the entire ‘Greece had slaves so it can’t be a democracy etc.’ argument, it turns out that more than a dozen Greek city states had a democratic government before Athens and some of them were created almost a century before the Greek capital followed suit.
There is undeniably an Athenocentric (yes, I made that word up) slant in texts written about ancient Greece. Apparently, over 30% of all Greek history books are dedicated to Classical Athens which is probably why the Athenian democracy myth gets peddled so frequently. The city of Ambracia is believed to have been ruled by a popular assembly as early as 580 BC and it may not even be the first.
The Athenian system was ‘direct democracy’ where citizens could vote directly on executive bills and legislation. The undemocratic aspect was the fact that only free men with land were allowed to vote. At the beginning of the 5th century BC, this was no more than 10-15% of the population.
The system was rather complex and included a Popular Assembly, Popular Tribunal, Ancient Tribunal, Military & Civil Magistracies and a Council of 500. Each section had its own responsibilities. For instance, the Ancient Tribunal was made up of 150 citizens and had jurisdiction on homicide while the Archons in the Civil Magistracies council organized the feasts celebrated in Athens.
The longest ruling democratic leader was Pericles and once he died, Athenian democracy began to hit a slippery slope. In the grand scheme of things, democracy in Athens didn’t last very long at all because the Macedonians eliminated it in 322 BC. Although there was a revival of Athenian institutions later on, the city never again came close to the level of democracy it enjoyed in the 4th and 5th centuries BC.