The Constitution of Athens

Sources:

Music:
"Direct to Video," by Chris Zabriskie
"It's Always Too Late to Start Over," by Chris Zabriskie
"Mario Bava Sleeps In a Little Later Than He Expected To," by Chris Zabriskie
"Hallon," by Christian Bjoerklund

[UDumFck]

Thumbs up due to the beautiful flowers @14:05! :)

[feynstein]

Watching the video in 4K. You can really see how sharp the edges of the tiny squares are. 10/10

[jasondoe]

It's worth mentioning that the "ostracised" person could keep all his property, and he and his family would suffer no other repercussions other than his forced physical absence from the city for 10 years.

The goal was removal from the political life, not punishment of any sort. For the Athenians, it was inconceivable that a citizen would be physically present but not participate in politics – even implying that someone didn't want to engage in "the common" [public matters] would be a huge insult. The modern term "idiot" comes from their word "idiotes", meaning the person who only cares about his private matters.

[TDrewBR]

last time i was this early the spartans could field 10.000 citizen soldiers.

[zpeipip]

Only this man could get me to watch a full video about paperwork of a dead government over 2, 000 year ago.

[tombomb]

2:23 "Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Basileus the greek?"

[jacobhood]

The use of broken pottery is actually genius. It meant that no one could fake ballets, since their fake ballets wouldn’t fit back into the reassembled pot.

[Michael-kdho]

A noteworthy person to have been ostracized was Themistocles, the victorious admiral in the battle of Salamis against the Persians - by quite a large concensus, the man responsible for saving Athens and Greece itself from becoming a satrapy of the Achemenid Empire.

He grew very popular in the aftermath of the war, but was wildly hostile to Sparta, which also contributed to the assembly's vote - not only was Temistocles becoming too powerful and influential, he might also drag the city to war with the Laconians.

Themistocles never returned to Athens - ironically, he wound up serving the Persian king Artaxerxes - the son of the Xerxes who invaded Greece and who's fleet Themistocles destroyed - as governor and high ranking official. He died in exile in Asia, aged 63.

[gnazlis]

@6:15 If a Citizen didn't participate on the assembly he was called an IDIOT which means "A Private Person"
and was considered an idiot by his fellow citizens for allowing them to decide for him.
The word IDIOT is still in use in modern Greek (ΙΔΙΟΤΗΣ) and has the same meaning without the negative connotation
i.e. ΙΔΙΟΤΙΚΗ περιουσία = PRIVATE property

[mrid]

This channel does a great job in making history accessible. I already love history, but often don't have the time to scroll through many many documents and then make a coherent story. You are absolutely great at this, it is often quite difficult to make history seem coherent and simple because it often isn't. Good job! Keep up the good work!

[maxanette]

Thanks for making another video, I missed the squares.

[faithlessgr]

Solon's legislative reforms that laid the foundations for Athenean Democracy were not just an answer to the infighting of the oligarchs. You make it sound as if a member of the oligarchs willingly gave away power to the poor Athenean masses. Solon's reforms came about as a result of the growing unrest and rioting of the Athenean population against the Oligarchs. In other Greek city-states this conflict resulted in the establishment of tyrannies as a means for the aristocrates to maintain their rule. In Athens it was resolved with Solon's reforms which would compromise some of thar power and would introduce certain rights and political involvement to the masses.

[Chrisxaxaxaxa]

As a greek it's weird to hear words like Βασιλεύς Στρατηγός and Βουλή with an English accent. Also we were taught this type of stuff (although not with so much detail) in school so this is a nice way of learning more. As always great video.

[oWallis]

Those Ancient Athenians should feel proud. Imitation is the highest form of flattery.

[MichalisFamelis]

I'd love a similar one on the Old Swiss Confederacy.

[MarkedOne]

A few comments by a native Greek speaker on the pronunciations:

1:23 "Areopagus = Arios Pagos" Pagos is an ancient Greek word for rock. It's basically a huge rocky hill situated near the Acropolis of Athens. Today the supreme court of Greece is called Arios Pagos.

2:10 "Basileus = Vasilefs".

2:35 "Polemarch = Polemarchos".

6:37 "Boule = Vouli" You've probably heard of it if you follow Greek politics. The word is still used today for the Hellenic Parliament

11:45 The 10 tribes were named after 10 mythological heroes, selected by the Oracle at Delphi. For anyone interested, they were: Erechtheis, Aigeis, Pandionis, Leontis, Akamantis, Oineis, Kekropis, Hippothontis, Aiantis (10 points if you know who the name refers to ) and lastly Antiochis.

13:40 "Prytaneis = Pritanis" The word is still used today, mostly for the head of a university.

17:05 Ostrakismos or Eksostrakismos (out + ostrascism). Historians have found roughly 10, 500 pieces of pottery with names written on them. Plutarch wrote that on 482 B.C a man that didn't know how to write, asked a random person to write on his ostrakon the name Aristides (the Just). Unbeknownst to him that man was Aristides himself. Aristides asked him " What has Aristides done to you". "Nothing" the man replied, "but I'm tired of hearing everyone calling him Just". Upon hearing that, Aristides wrote his name on the Ostrakon and returned it to the man.

[allofthem]

This channel is my favourite thing to see in notifications. I legitimately get excited.

[joecopley]

Ancient History student here and I just spent this term studying this exact topic. This video is a perfect summery of what I studied. This will be helpful later down the line when it comes to revise for the exam period. Thank you very much Historia Civilis; amazing and informative content as always!

[darkmatertm]

One of my favourite factoids about ancient Athens is that it was legal to kill a tyrant. If anyone held onto power after their term, a random citizen could kill him on some opportunity, and they wouldn't be accused of something.

[Bravco]

You did an amazing job. I'm reading Plutarch and Aristotle right now. But you clarified/simplified everything so well. Your channel deserves support.