Athenian democracy
idea · 8 works · 8 mentions · 13 anchored passages
democracy · Athenian tradition of liberty · constitution · constitutional government · constitutional governments · democracies · equal vote · equality · free citizens · freedom of a democracy
in the texts
On the Embassy
The democratic constitutional order of Athens, threatened by past folly and praised through civic legal practice.
Finally they brought the city to such a pass that she was glad to make peace, giving up everything, tearing down her walls, receiving a garrison and a Lacedaemonian governor, and surrendering the democracy to the Thirty, who put fifteen hundred citizens to death without a trial.
for Atrometus our father, whom you slander, though you do not know him and never saw what a man he was in his prime—you, Demosthenes, a descendant through your mother of the nomad Scythians—our father went into exile in the time of the Thirty, and later helped to restore the democracy;
A right provision, fellow citizens, and worthy of a democracy.
Against Androtion
The democratic constitutional order whose laws and ethos the speaker says Androtion has violated.
For the people may be led astray by them to make many mistakes, and such men may attempt either to overthrow the democracy completely,—for in an oligarchy, even if there are viler livers than Androtion, no one may speak evil of dignities—or to debauch the people, so that they may be as nearly as possible like themselves.
Gentlemen of the jury, Euctemon finding himself wronged by Androtion, thinks it his duty to obtain satisfaction for himself and at the same time to up hold the constitution;
For the man who is acting for the State ought to imitate the spirit of the State, and you, Athenians, ought to encourage such men and hate men like the defendant.
Against Leptines
The Athenian constitutional order grounded in popular supremacy and civic competition for public honors.
Because in an oligarchy harmony is attained by the equality of those who control the State, but the freedom of a democracy is guarded by the rivalry with which good citizens compete for the rewards offered by the people.
but with us the people is supreme, and any other form of supremacy is forbidden by imprecations and laws and other safeguards, but we have crowns of honor and immunities and free maintenance and similar rewards, which anyone may win, if he is a good citizen.
it is not right that you should want to put a man to death for transplanting to Athens any of the institutions that have made those nations great, and yet lend a willing ear to those who propose to destroy the institutions under which our democracy has flourished.
Fourth Philippic
The free Athenian constitutional order opposed to tyranny, oligarchy, and Macedonian domination.
Therefore he does not want to have the Athenian tradition of liberty watching to seize every chance against himself;
First, men of Athens, you must fix this firmly in your minds, that Philip is at war with us and has broken the peace, and that he is ill-disposed and hostile to the whole city and to the very soil on which the city stands, and, I will add, to the gods that dwell in it;
the other eager to rule their fellow-countrymen, but to take their orders from some third person, who they think will enable them to compass their ends—Philip’s faction, those who hanker after tyrannies and oligarchies, have everywhere gained the supremacy, and I doubt whether of all the states there is any stable democracy left except our own.
The Funeral Speech
The Athenian constitutional order, credited with instilling shame-driven virtue in its citizens in contrast to fear-driven absolute governments.
Democracies, however, possess many other just and noble features, to which right-minded men should hold fast, and in particular it is impossible to deter freedom of speech, which depends upon speaking the truth, from exposing the truth.
For though absolute governments dominated by a few create fear in their citizens, they fail to awaken the sense of shame.
Suppliants
The Athenian political doctrine, articulated by Theseus, that the city is ruled by its citizens collectively and equally rather than by a single despot.
For them I made supreme, when I set this city free, by giving all an equal vote.
The people rule in succession year by year, allowing no preference to wealth, but the poor man shares equally with the rich.
But when the laws are written down, rich and poor alike have equal justice, and it is open to the weaker to use the same language to the prosperous when he is reviled by him, and the weaker prevails over the stronger if he have justice on his side.
Antidosis
The Athenian democratic order attributed to the work of Solon and Cleisthenes.
Next, Cleisthenes, after he had been driven from Athens by the tyrants, succeeded by his eloquence in persuading the Amphictyons to lend him money from the treasury of Apollo, and thus restored the people to power, expelled the tyrants, and established that democracy to which the world of Hellas owes its greatest blessings.
To the Children of Jason
The political arrangement whose honors and advantages Isocrates prefers to monarchy and despotism.
To me the life of a private citizen seems preferable and better than that of a king, and I regard the honors received under constitutional governments as more gratifying than those under monarchies.
[Then followed in the letter the practical advice of Isocrates to the future rulers of Thessaly, presumably setting forth the advantages of a government under a constitution, i.