Ancient Greek Democracies: Classical and Hellenistic

elective courses
general courses

Classroom

The present course focuses on various forms of ancient Greek democracies from the very beginning of the concept to its gradual evaporation in the high Hellenistic period. It does not omit the best known Athenian example of the Classical period. Still, the ambition of this class is to show alternative forms of democracy, and especially of democracies that possibly predated Cleisthenes’ reform at Athens. Towards the end of the semester, the particular focus of the course will be on the changing values (especially ones related to citizens’ rights) in the new enlarged and greatly entangled Greek world of the Hellenistic period. It will show how democracies evolved in the era of globalization and cosmopolitanism, and how finally they disappeared as self-conscious societies.

The present course focuses on various forms of ancient Greek democracies from the very beginning of the concept to its gradual evaporation in the high Hellenistic period. It does not omit the best known Athenian example of the Classical period. Still, the ambition of this class is to show alternative forms of democracy, and especially of democracies that possibly predated Cleisthenes’ reform at Athens. Towards the end of the semester, the particular focus of the course will be on the changing values (especially ones related to citizens’ rights) in the new enlarged and greatly entangled Greek world of the Hellenistic period. It will show how democracies evolved in the era of globalization and cosmopolitanism, and how finally they disappeared as self-conscious societies.

Z. Archibald (et alii), Hellenistic Economies, London 2001.

H. Beck & P. Funke (eds.), Federalism in Greek Antiquity, Cambridge 2015.

R. Brock & S. Hodkinson (eds). Alternatives to Athens, Oxford: OUP 2001.

S. Carlsson, Hellenistic Democracies: Freedom, Independence and Political Procedure in Some East Greek City-States, Stuttgart 2010.

P. Cartledge, Greece: A History in Eleven Cities, Oxford 2009.

S. Dmitriev, City Government in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor, Oxford 2005.

Chr. Habicht, Hellenistic Athens , Princeton 1997.

M.H. Hansen, The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes, Cambridge 1991.

M.H. Hansen, Was Athens a Democracy, Copenhagen 1990.

A.H.M. Jones, The Greek City from Alexander to Justinian, Oxford 1940.

J.A.O. Larsen, Greek Federal States, Oxford 1968.

J. Ma, Polis: A New History of the Ancient Greek City-State from the Early Iron Age to the End of Antiquity, Princeton 2024.

O. Murray, S. Price, The Greek City: From Homer to Alexander, Oxford 1991.

E.W. Robinson, Democracy beyond Athens: Popular Government in the Greek Classical Age, Cambridge 2011.

N.I. Rostovzeff, Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World, Oxford 1940.

J. Rzepka, Greek Federal Terminology, Gdańsk 2017.

L. Samons, What's Wrong with Democracy?: From Athenian Practice to American Worship, Los Angeles-Berkeley 2007.

M. Węcowski, Athenian Ostracism and its Original Purpose: A Prisoner's Dilemma, Oxford 2022.

After completing the course its participants should:

- Know basic examples of democratically0-governed states in ancient history;

- Identify main traits of democratic constitutions and democratic ideologies in ancient Greece;

- Discern between various constitutional forms of Greek states;

- Understand the processes behind the rise, worldwide domination and gradual disappearance of democracy in the Greek world;

- Understand the scope and limitations of Greek democracies’ influence on modern democratic ideologies.

A short review essay of approx. 500-600 words on one of the books mentioned in the syllabus (or on another book agreed by the lecturer and a student).