The Rise and Fall of Athenian Democracy: From Pericles to Socrates

A-Historical Context: Athens, the Decline of Splendor (5th-4th Centuries BC)

The Persian Wars

1. The First Persian War (490 BC)

Occasion (500 BC): Revolt of the Ionian cities against the Persians. Disaster.

Battle of Marathon (490 BC): Persians defeated by the Athenians.

2. The Second Persian War (480 BC)

Xerxes I, son of Darius, attempts to conquer Greece. Athenians and Spartans unite against the Persians. After the battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea, the Greeks win the war.

The Rise of Athens

Athens becomes an economic power, establishing the Delian League. Rivalries resurface between Athens and Sparta, leading to the Peloponnesian War.

The Golden Age of Pericles

Pericles is chosen as strategos. Athenian democracy is reformed and transformed. The Delian League becomes the Athenian Empire.

The Peloponnesian War and Decline

Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC).

Sparta establishes the rule of the Thirty Tyrants (404-403 BC).

Socrates is sentenced to death in 399 BC. The decline of Athens begins.

B-Socio-Cultural Context: Changes to Democracy

Athens evolved from monarchy to democracy, through oligarchy and tyranny.

Between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, changes put the democratic model in crisis.

Attempts to solve the crisis with the reforms of Draco and Solon.

Pisistratus establishes a tyrannical government, a transition period to democracy (Cleisthenes and Pericles).

Periclean Democracy

• Polis: The city-state.
• Citizens: Free, adult, non-foreigners.
• Isonomia: Equality before the law.
• Isegoria: Right to participate in the Athenian assembly.

C-Philosophical Context

Philosophy emerges in the 6th century BC in Ionia, seeking the arche (origin) of the physis (nature). Thinkers like Thales (water), Anaximander (apeiron), Anaximenes (air), and Pythagoras (numbers) explore this concept.

In the 5th century BC, the focus shifts from cosmology to ontology (being and becoming). Heraclitus emphasizes change and the logos. Parmenides argues for the unchanging reality of being.

Pluralists attempt to reconcile being and becoming. The arrival of the Sophists and Socrates in Athens marks a new direction for philosophy: the question of man as a citizen of the polis.

Democratic Organization in Times of Pericles

Executive Branch

The monarchy's functions are replaced by the College of Archons and Strategos.

The College of Archons was formed by 10 Archons (one for each tribe) elected by all citizens.

Judiciary

Heliaia: People's Courts.

Legislative Branch

Assembly: By the 5th century BC, the most important body, composed of all citizens over 20 years.

Council (Boule)

Areopagus

Economic Power and Artistic and Cultural Development

The Delian League brings economic development. Athens becomes a cultural center under Pericles.

Classical Architecture and Sculpture: Parthenon (Phidias).

Literature: Tragedy (Sophocles, Euripides), Comedy (Aristophanes), and History (Herodotus, Thucydides).