The Ancient Greeks: Crucible of Civilization Episode 1

PBS (2000)

Film Review

This film describes the birth of democracy in ancient Athens in 508 BC, after a popular uprising ended centuries of brutal oppression by aristocrats who virtually owned their workers as serfs. Although Athens wasn’t the first Greek polis (city-state) to institute democracy, it’s the most comprehensively documented.

In 594 BC, Solon had been the first leader to give every free (male) resident of Attica (greater Athens) the right to participate in assembly meetings. Solon also enacted significant economic reforms including cancelling existing debts, freeing debt saves and banning debt slavery (the practice of using oneself as loan collateral).

In 561 BC, the benevolent “tyrant”* Pisistratus overthrew Solon’s nascent democracy. Ironically he laid the groundwork for the 508 BC uprising by reducing taxes and implementing free loans to farmers. In this way, he greatly increased agricultural productivity, enabling Athens to export wine, olive oil and Greek vases to Egypt, Persia, Phoenicia Assyria and other Greek states, and import sword fish from the Black Sea, grain from Scythia, gold, silver and jewelry from Egypt and metallic weapons and utensils from the island of Keros.

Following the death of Pisistratus in 527 BC, his son Hippias succeeded him. The latter initially followed his father’s example as a benevolent ruler. However following his brother’s murder, he began arbitrarily executing innocent Athenians and eventually descended into madness.

In In 510 BC, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow the tyrant Hippis, and Cleomenes I, king of Sparta, installed a pro-Spartan oligarchy headed by Isagoras. One of the latter’s first moves was to exile 700 aristocrats who posed a threat to his rule, starting with the aristocrat and lawyer Cleisthenes. After the 508 BC popular uprising expelled Isagoras himself, the mob recalled Cleisthenes from exile and asked him to create a new government.

Under Cleisthenes, all free males (around 30% of the population) belonged to an Athenian assembly that gathered every nine days to vote on governance decisions, such as setting taxes, importing food and making war. Each assembly member was given a white pebble for “yes” and a black pebble for “no” to deposit into a clay pot.

*In ancient Greece the word tyrant referred to individuals who seized power illegitimately (in many cases with popular support to quell civil unrest and restore stability). A tyrant could be good kind ruler or an evil despotic one.