The innovations of the ancient Greeks in law and government paved the way for modern-day Western laws and concepts of democracy.
Date: c. 2000-31 b. c.e.
Category: Government and politics; law
The Bronze Age Law development during the early periods of ancient Greece called the Bronze Age (c. 2000-1200 b. c.e.) would be described, at best, as prelegal. There were no established laws for most societal offenses or for organized government. Individuals or families handled societal offenses, often leading to bloody feuds. Governmental laws changed with each new ruler.
The two civilizations that dominated Greece at this time were the Minoan and the Mycenean. The Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, beginning about 3000 b. c.e., developed a mercantile system that produced governments best described as bureaucratic monarchies. The monarch served in a capacity much like a chief executive officer of a corporation. During the height of the Mycenean period (c. 1700 b. c.e.) in southern Greece, government was centered on fortress-palaces ruled by warrior-kings. The opulence of these rulers was discovered in the royal shaft graves containing nineteen gold-covered bodies dating from about 1500 b. c.e. After absorbing the Minoan civilization about 1400 b. c.e., the Mycenean civilization reached its peak about 1200 b. c.e., but it soon deteriorated.
The Greek Dark Ages Because of a loss of literacy, the period known as the Dark Ages of Greece (c. 1100-800 b. c.e.) has little historical documentation. Most information is gleaned from Homer’s literary epics the Iliad (c. 750 b. c.e.; English translation, 1611) and the Odyssey (c. 725 b. c.e.; English translation, 1614). Societal laws were still in the prelegal category. Governments were tribal aristocracies, with monarchs having more religious significance than political power.
The Archaic Age In the Archaic Age (c. 800-500 b. c.e.), societal law began to enter legal status. Hesiod, a contemporary of Homer, accelerated this development in his Erga kai Emerai (c. 700 b. c.e.; Works and Days, 1618). His poetry used farm tasks to symbolize his view of justice, and he criticized the injustices of the nobility toward common Greeks. The major governmental characteristic of this period was the development of the polis, which reached a recognizable form about 750 b. c.e. and dominated Greece until the time of Alexander the Great (336 b. c.e.).
Best defined as an autonomous city-state, the polis included one dominant urban center called the astu and a countryside called the chora. The chora included dependent villages, which were often as large as the astu but did not include the dominant political leaders. The early polis was ruled as a weak aristocratic monarchy, with the king being a war leader chosen with the approval of the soldiers. The landowning nobility had great influence, however, and eventually changed the monarchy into an oligarchy, the later corruption of which led to tyranny. Tyranny was an illegal seizure of power, often backed by the public for the public good.
Archaic Sparta was one of the two most powerful of the poleis. As a government, Sparta never advanced beyond a military oligarchy, but a seventh century b. c.e. king named Lycurgus introduced a mixed constitution called the Great Rhetra. This document included an assembly called the Demos, which was to have great power but could be overruled by the king and aristocrats. The key to the enforcement of the Rhetra was the Spartan way of life, grounded in severe discipline for all levels of society.
The second powerful polis was Athens. Beginning as a monarchy, Athens was the first polis to move through oligarchy and tyranny to democracy, meaning “rule by the people.” Its early development included individuals called themosthetes, defined as “one who establishes the law.” The law was mostly oral tradition with a wide range of interpretation. The most important of the themosthetes was Draco, in 621/620 b. c.e., who was the first to begin writing down the laws, establishing severe penalties for all offenses and allowing less variation in their interpretation. Economic conditions deteriorated soon after Draco, producing many debt slaves and leading in 594 b. c.e. to the rule of Solon, the second major lawgiver in Archaic Athens. Solon established seisachtheia, or the “shaking off of burdens.” In addition to canceling most debts, his reform including granting citizenship to non-Athenians then living in Athens. This act established the basis of Athenian citizenship for about two centuries. Solon had refused the role of tyrant, but two later holders of that position established the reforms that eventually made Athens a pure democracy. Beginning in 560 b. c.e., Pisis-tratus redistributed land to those previously landless, creating a much larger landowning class. The second of these tyrants was Cleisthenes (or Kleisthenes), who, in 508 b. c.e., made the final governmental and legal changes that produced Athenian democracy.
The Classical Age This period called the Classical Age (500-323 b. c.e.) includes the Golden Age of Athenian democracy. The basically military position of strategos developed into the dominant political position and was held by Pericles (c. 495-429 b. c.e.) for much of the period. Pericles, in 429 b. c.e., gave the classic and ideal definition of democracy. The Athenian philosopher Aristotle (384-322 b. c.e.) applied his philosophy to governments in his Politica (c. 335-323 b. c.e.; Politics, 1598) and Athe-naifn politeia (c. 335-323 b. c.e.; The Athenian Constitution, 1812). He divided government into those correct (monarchy, aristocracy, and republic) and those incorrect (tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy). A republic then existed in Rome. Aristotle classified democracy as incorrect because he lived after the Golden Age, when the weaknesses of democracy, described by his predecessor Plato, had become evident. At the end of the Classical Age, for the first time, all the Greek poleis were ruled under one government, that of Alexander the Great (356-323 b. c.e.). The conquests of Alexander forever implanted Greek civilization, with its governmental innovations, in the ancient world.
The Hellenistic Age After Alexander, a period called the Hellenistic Age (323-31 b. c.e.), governments in Greece, and in areas impacted by Alexander, were ruled by monarchs. Some were weak, while others reached the status of a “ruler cult” and often approached deity in the minds of the people. By 31 b. c.e., a new Mediterranean power had overrun the Greek world. That power, Rome, absorbed Greek ideas into a Greco-Roman civilization.
Further Reading
Demand, Nancy. A History of Ancient Greece. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1996.
Gagarin, Michael, and David Cohen, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Orrieux, Claude, and Pauline Schmitt Pantel. A History of Ancient Greece.
Translated by Janet Lloyd. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 1999.
Pomeroy, Sarah, et al. A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Glenn L. Swygart
See also: Archaic Greece; Aristotle; Athenian Democracy; Athens; Classical Greece; Cleisthenes of Athens; Crete; Draco; Draco’s Code; Hellenistic Greece; Hesiod; Lycurgus of Sparta; Mycenean Greece; Pericles; Pisis-tratus; Solon; Solon’s Code; Spartan Constitution.
World History
