The Past and Present Society

Athenian Demagogues Author(s): M. I. Finley Source: Past & Present, No. 21 (Apr., 1962), pp. 3-24 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/649993 . Accessed: 01/11/2013 21:15
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ATHENIAN DEMAGOGUES'
it withdisbelief. Then cametherealization received Athenians, they and the people,writes of the fullscale of the disaster, Thucydides, who had joined in promoting "were indignant withthe orators the as if they [the people] had not themselves decreed it expedition, [in assembly]".2 To this George Grote made the following rejoinder:
From these latter words, it would seem that Thucydides considered the Athenians, after having adopted the expedition by their votes, to have debarred themselvesfrom the right of complaining of those speakers who had stood forward to advise the step. I do not at all concur in prominently his opinion. The adviser of any importantmeasure always makes himself morallyresponsibleforits justice, usefulness,and practicability;and he very properlyincurs disgrace,more or less accordingto the case, if it turns out to to those which he had predicted.3 presentresultstotallycontrary
WHEN THE NEWS OF THEIR DEFEAT IN SICILY IN 413 B.C. REACHED THE

These twoopposing raiseall thefundamental quotations problems in the Athenian inherent the problems of policy-making democracy, and leadership,of decisions and the responsibility for them. tellsus verylittleabout the orators who Unfortunately Thucydides the decisionto mountthe great successfully urgedon the Assembly invasionof Sicily. In fact,he tells us nothing concrete about the otherthanthatthe people weregivenmisinformation meeting, by a from the Siciliancityof Segestaand by their own envoys delegation fromSicily,and thatmostof thosewho votedwereso just returned oftherelevant facts thattheydid notevenknowthe size of ignorant the island or of its population. Five days latera secondAssembly was held to authorize the necessary armament. The generalNicias tooktheopportunity to seeka reversal ofthewholeprogramme. He was opposedby a number ofspeakers, Athenian and Sicilian, neither namedby thehistorian nordescribed in anyway,and by Alcibiades, who is given a speech which throwsmuch light on Thucydides himself and on his judgment of Alcibiades, but scarcely any on the the immediate ones being debated or the broader issues, whether ones of democratic procedureand leadership. The result was a completedefeat for Nicias. Everyone,Thucydides admits, was now moreeagerthanbefore to go ahead withtheplan- theold and the young, the hoplitesoldiers(who weredrawnfrom the wealthier halfof the citizenry) and the commonpeople alike. The fewwho remainedopposed, he concludes,refrained fromvotinglest they appearedunpatriotic.4

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The wisdomof the Sicilianexpedition is a verydifficult matter. himself had in his more than one view at different times Thucydides life. However,he seems not to have changedhis mindabout the orators:theypromoted the expedition for the wrongreasonsand on theignorance of the and emotions theygainedtheday by playing Assembly. Alcibiades,he says,pressedhardestof all, because he wishedto thwart ambitious and Nicias, because he was personally in thecampaign, from his generalship hopedto gainfameand wealth and becausehis extravagant and licentious weremoreexpensive tastes than he could reallyafford. Elsewhere,writing in more general terms, Thucydides saysthis:
[Under Pericles] the governmentwas a democracy in name but in reality rule by the first citizen. His successorswere more equal to each other,and man theyeven offered each seekingto become the first the conduct of affairs to the whims of the people. This, as was to be expected in a great state ruling an empire, produced many blunders.5

In short, after the deathof PericlesAthensfellintothe handsof and was ruined. Thucydidesdoes not use the word demagogues "demagogue"in any of the passagesI have been discussing. It is an uncommon wordwithhim,6 as it is in Greekliterature generally, and thatfactmaycome as a surprise, forthereis no morefamiliar themein the Athenian of the word)than picture(despitethe rarity the demagogueand his adjutant, the sycophant. The demagogue is a bad thing:to "lead the people" is to mislead- above all, to to lead. The demagogue is driven mislead byfailing by self-interest, the desire himself in to advance by power,in power,and through all principles, all genuine wealth. To achievethis,he surrenders leadership,and he panders to the people in every way - in ofaffairs "evenoffering to thewhims theconduct words, Thucydides' but also in of thepeople". This picture is drawnnotonlydirectly, kind reverse. Here,forexample, is Thucydides' imageof the right of leader:
Becauseofhis prestige, and known withrespect intelligence, incorruptibility to money, Pericles was able to lead the peopleas a freeman should. He them led theminstead of beingled by them. He did nothaveto humour
in the pursuit of power; on the contrary, his repute was such that he could contradict themand provoke their anger.7

This was noteveryone's putsthebreakdown judgment. Aristotle earlier:it was after tookawaythepowerof the Councilof Ephialtes the Areopagusthatthe passion fordemagogy set in. Pericles,he Cimon first continues, by prosecuting acquired politicalinfluence in office; he energetically formalfeasance pursueda policyof naval to take overthe power,"whichgave the lowerclassesthe audacity in politicsmoreand more"; and he introduced pay for leadership

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the people withtheirown money. These thusbribing juryservice, Periclesto power, and weredemagogic which, brought practices they Aristotle agrees,he thenused well and properly.8 in evaluating Periclesas an individual is neither But myinterest of demagogy. The Greek nor in examiningthe lexicography was normally apart from vague and imprecise, politicalvocabulary or bodies (and oftenenoughnot offices formal titlesforindividual even then). The word demoswas itselfambiguous; among its was one whichcame to dominate however, literary usage, meanings, namely"the commonpeople", "the lowerclasses", and thatsense in "demagogues"- theybecameleadersof the overtones provided to the backingof the commonpeople. All writers the statethanks as axiomatic; their leadership acceptedtheneed forpolitical problem betweengood and bad types. With respectto was to distinguish the word "demagogue"understandably Athensand its democracy, thebad type, of and it does not becamethesimplest way identifying thewordappearsin anygiventextor not. in theleastwhether matter who established the model in his I suppose it was Aristophanes he never of Cleon, yet directlyapplied the noun portrayal withThucydides, to himoranyone who else;9similarly "demagogue" and some,if not all, of thatCleophon,Hyperbolus, surelythought forthe Siciliandisaster weredemagogues, but theorators responsible thewordto anyofthesemen. who neverattached to stressthe word "type",forthe issue raisedby It is important is one of the essentialqualitiesof the leader, not Greek writers his techniquesor technicalcompetence, (except verysecondarily) and not even (except in a verygeneralized way) his programme is betweenthe man who gives policies. The crucial distinction withnothing else in mindbut the good of the state,and leadership makeshis own position the man whoseself-interest and paramount maymakea mistake urgeshimto panderto thepeople. The former the latter and adoptthe wrong policyin anygivensituation; mayat as whenAlcibiadesdissuadedthe fleet timesmakesound proposals, the naval positionby rushing at Samos fromjeopardizing back to an actionto whichThucydides there, gave explicit approval.10 But these are not fundamentaldistinctions.Nor are other traits to individual Cleon's habitof shouting attributed when demagogues: in the and matters, addressing Assembly, personal dishonesty money thepicture. FromAristophanes so on. Such things merely sharpen to Aristotle, the attackon the demagogues alwaysfallsback on the one central does theleaderlead? question:in whoseinterest
Athens in 411 B.C. to overthrowthe oligarchs who had seized power

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Behind this formulation of the questionlay threepropositions. is thatmen are unequal - bothin theirmoralworth The first and and in theirsocial and economicstatus. The second is capability that any community tends to divide into factions,the most of whichare the richand well-born on one side, the fundamental and poor on the other,each withits own qualities,potentialities, interests. The third propositionis that the well-ordered and well-runstate is one which over-rides factionand serves as an forthe good life. instrumentality Faction is the greatestevil and the most common danger. of the Greekstasis, "Faction" is a conventional Englishtranslation wordsto be foundin anylanguage. Its one of themostremarkable root-senseis "placing", "setting" or "stature", "station". Its can bestbe illustrated meanings rangeofpolitical by merely stringing out the definitions to be found in the lexicon: "party", "party formedfor seditiouspurposes", "faction","sedition","discord", a well-attested "division", "dissent", and, finally, meaningwhich "civil war" or the lexicon incomprehensibly omits, namely, word stasisis a verycommon "revolution". Unlike "demagogue", is regularly in the literature, and its connotation pejorative. Oddly enough,it is also the most neglected conceptin modernstudyof Greekhistory. It has not been observedoftenenoughor sharply in the fact enough,I believe,thattheremustbe deep significance senseof "station"or "position", thata wordwhichhas the original sensewhen in abstract and which, logic,couldhavean equallyneutral in practice does nothing of the kind,but used in a political context, a takeson the nastiest overtones. A political position, immediately is that is a bad the inescapable implication partisan position of the social civilwar,and the disruption thing, leadingto sedition, the fabric."1 And this same tendencyis repeated throughout all, why "demagogue",a law, after language. There is no eternal of the people". "leader of the people", must become "mis-leader Or why hetairia,an old Greek word which meant,among other Athens havecome shouldin fifth-century "club" or "society", things, "seditious mean to organization". simultaneously "conspiracy", but in Greek it lies not in philology Whateverthe explanation, itself. society writers can havefailedto No one who has readthe Greekpolitical the of approachin this respect. Whatever notice the unanimity disagreements amongthem, theyall insistthatthe statemuststand are interests. Its aimsand objectives factional outsideclass or other and theycan be achieved moral ones, timelessand universal,

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morecorrectly, - onlyby education, approachedor approximated moralconduct(especially on the partof thosein authority), morally correctlegislation, and the choice of the rightgovernors. The of classes and interests existence as an empirical factis, of course, not denied. Whatis deniedis thatthe choiceof political goals can be linkedwiththese classes and interests, or that the legitimately good of the state can be advanced except by ignoring(if not interests. suppressing) private It was Plato,of course, whopursued thislineofitsreasoning to its mostradicalsolutions. In the Gorgias he had arguedthatnot even the great Athenian political figuresof the past - Miltiades, Cimon and Pericles- were true statesmen. They Themistocles, had merely beenmoreaccomplished thantheir in gratifying successors the desiresof the demos withshipsand wallsand dockyards. They had failed to make the citizens better men, and to call them to confuse the pastrycook with the "statesmen" was therefore doctor.12 Then, in the Republic, Plato proposedto concentrate all educatedclass, power in the handsof a small,select,appropriately who wereto be freedfromall special interests by the mostradical as theywere concerned of both measures, by the abolitioninsofar and the family. Only under those conditions private property would theybehave as perfect moralagents,leadingthe stateto its that any self-interest proper goals withoutthe possibility might intrude. Plato, to be sure, was the most untypical of men. One does notsafely from but generalize Plato; notonlynotto all Greeks, not evento anyothersingleGreek. Who else sharedhis passionate - philosophers - could make(and conviction thatqualified experts should therefore be empowered to enforce) correct and universally authoritative decisionsabout the good life,the lifeof virtue, which was the sole end of the state Yet on the one pointwithwhichI ?13 - private am immediately concerned interests and thestate- Plato stood on commongroundwithmanyGreekwriters (much as they disagreedwith him on the answers). In the greatfinalscene of the chorusexpresses the doctrine Aeschylus'Eumenides explicitly: the welfare of the statecan restonlyon harmony and freedom from faction. Thucydides implies this more than once.14 And it underliesthe theoryof the mixed constitution as we find it in Aristotle's Politics. The mostempirical of Greekphilosophers, Aristotle collected vast ofdataabouttheactualworkings of Greekstates, quantities including factsabout stasis. The Politicsincludesan elaboratetaxonomy of and even adviceon how stasiscan be avoidedundera variety stasis,

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of conditions. But Aristotle's canons and goals were ethical,his worka branchof moralphilosophy. He viewedpolitical behaviour to the moralends whichare man's by his teleologically, according if the governors make their nature;and those ends are subverted decisions out ofpersonal or classinterest. That is thetestby which he distinguished betweenthe three"right" formsof government ("according to absolute justice") and their degenerateforms: becomes tyranny when an individualrules in his own monarchy interest ratherthan in the interest of the whole state,aristocracy becomesoligarchy, and politybecomesdemocracy similarly (or, in the language of Polybius, becomesmob-rule).15Among democracy thosein rural willbe superior communities democracies, furthermore, because farmers are too occupiedto botherwithmeetings, whereas urban craftsmen and shopkeepers findit easy to attend,and such a bad lot".'6 people "are generally On this matter of specialinterest and generalinterest, of faction and concord, the availableexceptions I have to the line of thinking summarizedare strikingly few and unrewarding.One deserves and that,ironically on mention, particular enough,is the pamphlet the Athenian stateby an anonymous writer of the laterhalfof the fifth B.C.whonowgenerally goes underthetoo amiablelabel century of the Old Oligarch. This workis a diatribe thedemocracy, against is a bad one becauseall its at thethemethatthe system hammering of the poorer (inferior) actions are determined by the interests is familiar sectionsof the citizenry. The argument enough; what is thisconclusion: its unusualinterest givesthepamphlet
As for the Athenian system of government,I do not like it. However, since they decided to become a democracy,it seems to me that they are preservingthe democracywell by the methods I have described."7

In otherwords,the strength of the Atheniangovernment comes which the from that fact criticize, namely, manymerely precisely that it is government to its own actingunashamedly by a faction advantage. The great difference between and moraljudgment political analysis could not be betterexemplified.Do not be misled,says the Old but a Oligarchin effect:I and some of you dislike democracy, reasonedconsideration of thefactsshowsthatwhatwe condemn on lies moralgrounds is very as a practical and its strength force, strong but in itsimmorality.This is a very lineofinvestigation, promising it was not pursued in antiquity. Instead, those thinkers whose in theirconcentration on was anti-democratic orientation persisted politicalphilosophy. And those who sided with the democracy?

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ATHENIAN DEMAGOGUES

A. H. M. Jones has recently triedto formulate thedemocratic theory fromthe fragmentary evidenceavailablein the surviving literature, most of it fromthe fourthcentury.18 Still more recently, Eric Havelock made a massive attemptto discoverwhat he calls the "liberaltemper"in fifth-century Athenian fromthe politics, chiefly of the pre-Socratic his book, fragments philosophers. In reviewing that the effort was foredoomed because "it Momiglianosuggested is not absolutelycertainthat a well-articulated democraticidea in thefifth existed I do notbelievethatan century".19I go further: articulated democratic ever existedin Athens. There were theory - whichJoneshas assembled- but notions, maxims,generalities theydo notadd up to a systematic theory. And whyindeedshould ? It is a curious fallacy to suppose that every social or they governmentalsystem in history must necessarilyhave been accompanied by an elaboratetheoretical system. Wherethatdoes occurit is often theworkoflawyers, and Athens had no jurists in the but the proper sense. Or it may be the work of philosophers, of this period had a set of conceptsand systematic philosophers values incompatible with democracy. The committed democrats met the attack by ignoringit, by going about the business of theirpolitical affairs to theirown notions, but conducting according without treatises on what theywere about. None of this, writing is a reasonwhywe shouldnotattempt to maketheanalysis however, the Athenians failedto makeforthemselves. No accountof the Athenian can have any validity if it democracy overlooksfour points, each obvious in itself,yet all four taken I venture to say,arerarely in modern together, givensufficient weight accounts. The first is thatthiswas a direct and however democracy, much such a systemmay have in common with representative the two differ in certainfundamental democracy, respects,and on the veryissues with which I am here concerned. particularly The secondpointis whatEhrenberg calls the "narrowness of space" of the Greek city-state, an appreciation of which,he has rightly is crucialto an understanding of its politicallife.20 The stressed, weresummedup by Aristotle in a famous implications passage:
of a massso excessively ? And who can be herald, ?21 large exceptStentor
A state composed of too many.., .will not be a true state, for the simple reason that it can hardlyhave a true constitution. Who can be the general

The thirdpointis thatthe Assembly was the crownof the system, the right and the powerto makeall the policydecisions, possessing in actual practicewith few limitations, whetherof precedentor to scope. (Strictly speakingtherewas appeal fromthe Assembly

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withtheir I thepopularcourts largelaymembership. Nevertheless, in much,though notall, ofwhatfollows, thecourts becauseI ignore believe, as the Athenians did themselves,that, though they of politics, the courtswerean the practical mechanism complicated not a of the absolute reduction, power of the people expression, directly;and because I believe that the operational functioning to makewould not be significantly alteredand analysisI am trying would perhaps be obscured if in this brief compass I did not was nothing on the Assembly.) The Assembly, concentrate finally, on thehillcalledthePnyx,and massmeeting other thanan open-air of is thatwe are dealingwithproblems the fourth pointtherefore could not its laws of behaviour, crowd behaviour;its psychology, have been identicalwiththose of the small group,or even of the is an example largerkind of body of whicha modernparliament do little more must be we can it admitted, today than (though, theirexistence). acknowledge ? That is a questionwe cannotanswer Who werethe Assembly became eligibleto Everymale citizenautomatically satisfactorily. and he retained that his eighteenth whenhe reached attend birthday, wholosttheir forthevery smallnumber to hisdeath(except privilege forone reasonor another). In Pericles'timethenumber civicrights oftheorderof45,000. Womenwereexcluded;so were was eligible who were freemen, nearlyall of numerous non-citizens the fairly in the politicalsphere;and so werethe but outsiders themGreeks, are a guess,but it wouldnot slaves. All figures farmorenumerous to suggest thattheadultmale citizens be wildly inaccurate comprised townand countryside about one sixthof thetotalpopulation (taking is whichfour questionto be determined together). But the critical wentto meetings. It is ofthe45,000actually or six thousand or five the attendance to imaginethatundernormalconditions reasonable wouldoften from theurbanresidents. Fewerpeasants came chiefly oftheAssembly.22 in order a meeting to attend thejourney havetaken Thereforeone large section of the eligiblepopulationwas, with to excluded. That is something respect to direct participation, for can far We does not us but it know, guess example, enough. get was thatthe composition withthe aid of a fewhintsin the sources, normally weightedon the side of the more aged and the more ofweighting is only andthedegree men- butthat a guess, well-to-do is beyondevenguessing. thateach meeting factcan be fixed, Still,one important namely, of the Assemblywas unique in its composition. There was no in a given as such, onlymembership in the Assembly membership

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II

on a givenday. Perhapsthe shifts were not significant Assembly frommeetingto meetingin quiet, peacefultimes when no vital issueswerebeing debated. Yet even thenan important element of was lacking. When he enteredthe Assembly,no predictability couldbe quitesurethata change in thecomposition of policy-maker theaudiencehad notoccurred, whether accident or through through moreor less organized of some particular mobilization sectorof the population,which could tip the balance of the votes against a decisionmade at a previous neither meeting. And timeswereoften nornormal. In thefinal decadeofthePeloponnesian War, peaceful to take an extremeexample, the whole rural population was to abandonthe countryside and live within the citywalls. compelled It is beyondreasonable beliefthatduring thisperiodthere was nota of countrymen at meetings than was normal. A largerproportion similar situation forbriefer whenan times, prevailed periodsat other enemy army was operatingin Attica. We need not interpret whenhe openstheAcharnians witha soliloquy Aristophanes literally who is sitting in the Pnyxwaiting forthe Assembly to by a farmer and to himself how he hates the and in begin saying city everyone it and howhe intends to shoutdownanyspeaker whoproposes anything the luxuryof except peace. But Cleon could not have afforded ignoringthis strangeelementseated on the hillside beforehim. while They might upseta policylinewhichhe had been able to carry the Assembly was filled onlywithcity-dwellers. The one clearcutinstance came in the year 411. Then the was terrorized intovoting the democracy out of existence, Assembly and it was surelyno accident thatthisoccurred at a timewhenthe fleet was fully mobilized and stationed on theislandof Samos. The citizens who servedin the navyweredrawnfrom the poor and they were known to be the staunchestsupporters of the democratic in its late fifth-century form. Being in Samos, theycould system not be in Athens,thus enabling the oligarchsto win the day a majority in the Assembly whichwas not onlya minority through oftheeligible members butan untypical Oursources do not minority. us to study thehistory ofAthenian with permit policysystematically such knowledge at our disposal,but surely the menwho led Athens wereacutely awareof the possibility of a changein the composition of the Assembly, and includedit in their tactical calculations. Each meeting, was complete in itself. Granted that furthermore, muchpreparatory work was donebytheCouncil(boule), that informal tookplace,and thattherewerecertain devicesto control canvassing and checkfrivolous or irresponsible it is nevertheless true motions,

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that the normalprocedurewas for a proposalto be introduced, or rejected debated,and either passed (withor without amendment) in a singlecontinuous not only therefore, sitting. We mustreckon, withnarrowness of space but also withnarrowness oftime,and with the pressures that generated, especiallyon leaders (and would-be mentioned thecaseofthe Sicilian leaders). I havealready expedition, whichwas decidedin principle on one day and thenplanned,so to five whenthescaleand costwerediscussed and voted. speak, dayslater Anotherkind of case is that of the well-known Mytilenedebate. Warthecity ofMytilene revolted from the Earlyin thePeloponnesian AthenianEmpire. The rebellionwas crushedand the Athenian decidedto makean example oftheMytileneans Assembly by putting the entiremale population to death. Revulsionof feeling set in at the next once, the issue was reopenedat another meeting very day, and the decision was reversed.23Cleon, at that time the most importantpolitical figurein Athens, advocated the policy of The secondAssembly was a personal defeat for himfrightfulness. he had participated in the debateson bothdays- though he seems not to have lost his statuseven temporarily as a result(as he well effect mighthave). But how does one measurethe psychological on himofsucha twenty-four ? How does one estimate hourreversal notonlyits impact, but also his awareness all through his career as a leader that such a possibility was a constantfactorin Athenian ? I cannotanswersuch questionsconcretely, but I submit politics that the weight could have been no light one. Cleon surely as we cannot, whatit promised formenlikehimself that appreciated, in the second year of the Peloponnesian War, when morale was shattered temporarily by the plague,the people turnedon Pericles, himheavily, fined and deposedhimfora brief the office periodfrom ofgeneral.24 Ifthiscouldhappento Pericles, whowas immune ? In the Mytilenecase Thucydides'accountsuggests that Cleon's was a lostcausethesecondday,thathe tried to persuade theAssembly to abandona courseofactionwhichthey intended to pursuefrom the moment thesessionopened,and thathe failed. But thestory ofthe in 411, as Thucydides tellsit, is a different one. Peisander meeting began the day with the feeling against his proposal that the introduction of an oligarchicalform of government should be and he ended it witha victory. The actualdebatehad considered, swungenoughvotesto givehima majority.25 Debate designed to win votes among an outdoor audience meansoratory, in thestrict several thousands senseofthe numbering word. It was therefore perfectly preciselanguageto call political

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as we might and notmerely, as a synonym leaders"orators", do, as a skill of a particular markof the particular politicalfigure. Under muchmoreis implied. The picture Athenian however, conditions, to drawsuggests notonlyoratory, I havebeentrying oftheAssembly of debateand decisionwhichparliamentary but also a "spontaneity" lacks, at least in our day."2 Everyone,speakersand democracy felltheissue mustbe decided, audiencealike,knewthatbefore night fearof whipsor wouldvote"freely" thateach manpresent (without that every and therefore other partycontrols)and purposefully, mustseek to persuadethe audienceon the speech,everyargument as a wholeand in each of spot,thatit was all a seriousperformance, its parts. forthelastthingI in inverted I place theword"freely" commas, rational of a free,disembodied wishto implyis the activity faculty, that favouriteillusion of so much political theory since the Enlightenment.Members of the Assemblywere free from the controlswhich bind the membersof a parliament: they held no neither be could and therefore not were elected, office, they they were not But records. for their nor rewarded they voting punished fromthe fromhabitand tradition, freefromthe humancondition, of class and status,of personal influences of familyand friends, and fears, values, aspirations, resentments, prejudices, experiences, muchof it in the subconscious. These theytook withthemwhen listened to thedebates wentup on thePnyx,and withthesethey they different from the and made up theirminds,underconditions very between votingpracticesof our day. There is a vast difference on theone hand, occasions fora manor a party on infrequent voting on the issues and on the otherhand votingeveryfewdays directly time the Assemblymet at least four themselves. In Aristotle's thiswas also the rule timesin each thirty-six day period. Whether as during but there wereoccasions, in thefifth is notknown, century the PeloponnesianWar, when meetingstook place even more I have already frequently.Then therewere the two otherfactors the smallnessof the Athenianworld,in which every mentioned, knewpersonally on the member oftheAssembly manyothers sitting - a situation of thevoting background Pnyx,and the mass-meeting to theimpersonal unrelated act of marking a voting virtually paperin from other furtherisolation voter;an act we perform, physical every withtheknowledge thatmillions of other menand womenare more, simultaneously doingthe same thingin manyplaces,some of them hundredsof miles distant. When, for example, Alcibiades and in 415,theone to proposetheexpedition Nicias rosein theAssembly

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againstSicily,the otherto argueagainstit, each knewthat,should in the be carried, one or bothwouldbe askedto command themotion field. And in the audiencethereweremanywho werebeingasked to voteon whether wereto march outin a fewdays, they, personally, can be of thefleet. Such examples as officers, or members soldiers, less vitalareas: taxation, in a numberof other, scarcely duplicated of the franchise, laws of food supply,pay forjuryduty,extension and so on. citizenship, of the Assembly was in a lower To be sure,muchof the activity technical measures with (such as cult key, largely occupied acts (such as honorary decreesfora great or ceremonial regulations) to imagineAthens of individuals). It would be a mistake variety the as a cityin whichweek in and week out greatissues dividing and decided. But on the other debated were hand, being population no ten-year therewereveryfewsingleyears(and certainly periods) in whichsome greatissue did not arise: the two Persianinvasions, the long series of measures which completed the process of thePeloponnesian theEmpire, War(which democratization, occupied the endless interludes, twenty-seven years) and its two oligarchic withtheir and wars of the fourth manoeuvres century, diplomatic in the decades of Philip and attendant fiscalcrises,all culminating as it did to Cleonin the dispute Alexander. It did notoften happen, thata politician was facedwitha repeatperformance overMytilene, without did meet constantly, the following day; but the Assembly conductof a long periodsof holidayor recess. The week-by-week weekby week;as if had to go before theAssembly war,forexample, to takea referendum Churchill wereto havebeencompelled Winston vote beforeeach move in WorldWar II, and thento face another to afterthe move was made, in the Assemblyor the law-courts, whatthenextstepshouldbe but also whether notmerely determine he or evenwhether and his plansabandoned, he was to be dismissed was to be held criminally culpable,subject to a fineor exile or, or forthe fortheproposalitself either thedeathpenalty conceivably, out. It was had been carried the move part of the way previous in addition to theendlesschallAthenian that, system governmental enge in the Assembly,a politicianwas faced, equally without lawsuits." of politically withthethreat inspired respite, If I insist on the psychological aspect, it is not to ignorethe of many men who voted in the considerable politicalexperience - gainedin the Council,the law-courts, the demes,and Assembly - noris it merely whatI have called to counter itself theAssembly thedisembodied-rationalism something conception. I wantto stress

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which very positive,namely,the intense degree of involvement entailed. And this intensity at the AthenianAssembly attendance for the case amongthe orators, was equally(or even morestrongly) eachvotejudgedthemas wellas theissueto be decidedon. If I had ofbeinga thecondition to chooseone wordwhichbestcharacterized be "tension". In some in that word would leader Athens, political who are subject to a vote. measurethat is true of all politicians is R. B. McCallum's ofpolitics and government" "The desperateness in thisway: telling phrase,whichhe thendeveloped

I believe this to be a fair description of Athenianleaders, too, despite the absence of political parties, equally applicable to to Periclesas to Cimon,to Cleon as to Themistocles as to Aristides, itshouldbe obvious, thiskindofjudgment is independent Nicias; for, of any judgmentabout the meritsor weaknessesof a particular I shouldhave said thatthis or policy. More accurately, programme understates thecase fortheAthenians. Theirleadershad norespite. and Because theirinfluence had to be earnedand exerteddirectly - this was a necessary immediately consequenceof a direct,as - theyhad to lead in froma representative, distinct democracy in had also to and bear, they person, person,the brunt of the opposition'sattacks. More than that, they walked alone. They had theirlieutenants, of course,and politicians made allianceswith each other. But these were fundamentally personallinks,shifting a particular measure usefulin helpingto carry through frequently, but lacking ofsupport, that or evena groupofmeasures, thatquality or cushioning whichis provided effect, buttressing by a bureaucracy in another Establishand political party, wayby an institutionalized mentlike the Roman Senate,or in stillanother way by large-scale patronageas in the Roman clientagesystem. The criticalpoint is thatthere was no "government" in themodern sense. Therewere in theAssembly. A man butnonehad anystanding postsand offices, was a leader solelyas a function of his personal, and in the literal status withinthe Assemblyitself. The test of sense, unofficial whether or nothe heldthatstatuswas simply theAssembly whether did or did notvoteas he wished, and therefore thetestwas repeated witheach proposal.

and and wearinesswith the manoeuvres a note of cynicism Certainly to discerning is natural andto an extent ofparty proper politicians posturings on the and at leisure who can reflect donsand civilservants, independently But this seems to arise in government. masters doingsof theirharried statesmen and a deliberate . . oftheaimsand idealsofparty from rejection andwell-being for thesecurity andthecontinual their followers responsibility arein somesenseapostles, in thestate. For onething leaders although party towhich dedicate themselves allmaynotbe Gladstones; there arepolicies they and terrify which alarm them.28 and policies

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These werethe conditions whichfacedall leadersin Athens, not merely those whom Thucydides and Plato dismissed as "demagogues",not merelythose whom some modernhistorians mis-call"radicaldemocrats", but everyone, aristocrat or commoner, altruist or self-seeker, able or incompetent, who,in GeorgeGrote's to advise" the Athenians. No phrase,"stood forward prominently doubtthemotives whichmovedmento standforward variedgreatly. But thatdoes notmatter in thiscontext, foreach one ofthemwithout choseto aspireto, and actively to workand contest for, exception, leadership,knowingjust what that entailed,includingthe risks. Withinnarrow too. limits, theyall had to use the same techniques, Cleon's platform mannermay have been inelegant and boisterous, but how seriousis Aristotle's remark thathe was the first man to "shoutand rail"?29 Are we to imagine thatThucydides the son of Melesias (and kinsman of the historian) and Nicias whispered when in opposition to Periclesand Cleon, theyaddressedthe Assembly respectively?Thucydides,who broughthis upper-classbackers and seatedthem a claque?30 intotheAssembly to form together This is obviouslya frivolous approach,nothingmore than the of class prejudice and snobbishness. As Aristotle noted, expression the deathof Periclesmarked in the social history a turning-point of Athenian Until then seem to have been drawn from they leadership. the old aristocratic landed families, includingthe men who were out the reforms which completedthe responsiblefor carrying After Pericles a new of class leaders emerged.31 democracy. to Cleon the tanneror Despite the familiar prejudicialreferences these were in fact not poor men, not Cleophon the lyre-maker, and labourers turnedpolitician, but men of means who craftsmen in theirancestry from theirpredecessors and theiroutlook, differed in and who provoked resentment and hostility fortheirpresumption the old monopoly of leadership. When such attitudes are breaking under discussion,one can always turn to Xenophonto findthe the lowestlevel of explanation (whichis not therefore necessarily ofthenewleaders was a man wrong one). One ofthemost important called Anytus, who,like Cleon before him,drewhis wealthfroma had a long and distinguished but he slave tannery. Anytus career, of Socrates. What is was also the chiefactor in the prosecution ? Simply that Socrates had publicly Xenophon's explanation in histradeinstead forbringing berated up his son to follow Anytus in revenge and thatAnytus, himas a proper of educating gentleman, forthispersonalinsult,had Socratestriedand executed.32 issues None of thisis to denythattherewereveryfundamental

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the behindthe thickfagadeof prejudiceand abuse. Throughout there were the twin issues of fifth (or oligarchy) democracy century War. Defeat to a climaxin thePeloponnesian and empire, brought and it soon also endedthedebateabout in thewarendedtheempire Athenswas to have. Oligarchy ceased to the kind of government of be a seriousissue in practical politics. It is onlythe persistence whichcreatesan illusionabout it; theycontinued the philosophers but politically issues in the fourth to argue fifth-century century, the actual in a vacuum. Down to the middleof thefourth century, not thanbefore, wereperhapsless dramatic though policyquestions - such matters as navy less vital to the participants necessarily relationsboth with Persia and with other Greek finance, foreign ofcornsupply. Then camethe and theever-present states, problem overthe rising final powerof Macedon. That debate greatconflict, in theyear on for somethree went decades,anditendedonly following the GreatwhentheMacedonianarmy the deathofAlexander put an itself in Athens. end to democracy All these were questionsabout which men could legitimately and disagreewithpassion. On the issues,the arguments disagree, - but onlyinsofar as he of (say) Plato requireearnest consideration to the issues. The injectionof the charge of addressedhimself into the polemicamountsto a resortto the verysame demagogy tricks forwhichthe so-calleddemagogues are debating unacceptable condemned. Suppose, forexample,that Thucydideswas rightin Alcibiades' advocacyof the Sicilian expeditionto his attributing and to variousdiscreditable privatemotives. personalextravagance oftheproposal itself? Would Whatrelevance has thatto themerits the Sicilianexpedition, as a war measure, have been a better idea if Alcibiadeshad been an angelicyouth ? To ask the questionis to withit. One mustdismiss dismissit, and all othersuch arguments to oratory: as summarily theobjections to wishto lead by definition, Athensimpliesthe burden of trying to persuadeAthens,and an in publicoratory. essential consisted partof thateffort of course. I shouldconcedethe label One can drawdistinctions, in its mostpejorative ifa campaign sense,forexample, "demagogue" werebuiltaroundpromises which a cliqueoforators neither intended to honour norwerecapableofhonouring. But,significantly enough, this accusationis rarely levelledagainstthe so-calleddemagogues, and the one definite instance we knowcomesfromtheother camp. The oligarchy on the appeal that of 4II was sold to the Athenians thiswas now theonlywayto obtainPersiansupport and thusto win the otherwise lost war. Even on the most favourable view, as

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makesquite clear,Peisanderand some of his associates Thucydides but they quicklyabandoned all may have meant this originally, on pretenceof tryingto win the war while they concentrated thenewly wonoligarchy on as narrow a base as possible.33 preserving That is whatI should call "demagogy", if the wordis to meritits flavour. That is "misleading the people" in the literal pejorative sense. But what then of the interest question,of the supposed clash theinterests between ofthewholestateand theinterests ofa section or faction within ? It is a the state ? Is thatnota valid distinction that we have no direct evidence no indirect of any evidence pity (and between value)aboutthewaythelongdebatewas conducted 508B.C., when Cleisthenes established the democracy in its primitive form, and the lateryearsof Pericles'dominance. Those were the years whenclass interests would mostlikely have been expounded openly and bluntly. Actualspeechessurvive the end of the fifth onlyfrom revealwhatanyone couldhaveguessedwhohad on,and they century not been blindedby Plato and others, thatthe appeal was namely, one. There is littleopen a national one, nota factional customarily to the poor againstthe rich,to the farmers pandering againstthe townor to thetownagainst thefarmers. Whyindeedshouldthere have been? Politicians say thatwhattheyare advocating regularly is in the best interests of the nation,and, what is much more too, theychargetheiropponents important, theybelieveit. Often, withsacrificing forspecial interests, the nationalinterest and they believethat. I knowof no evidencewhichwarrants the view that Athenian weresomehowpeculiarin thisrespect;nor do politicians I knowanyreason is an essentially to holdthattheargument different but by not by a politician (or better)one because it is put forth or Thucydidesor Plato. Aristophanes At the same time a politiciancannotignore class or sectional ortheconflicts in a constituency interests whether them, today among or in the Assembly in ancientAthens. The evidenceforAthens suggeststhaton manyissues- the Empireand the Peloponnesian with orrelations War,forexample, PhilipofMacedon- thedivisions lines. But other overpolicydid notcloselyfollow class or sectional to ofthearchonship and other offices such as the opening questions, men of the lowerproperty censusesor of pay forjuryserviceor, in the fourth of the fleet, or the theoric the financing fund, century, on bothsidesknewthis wereby their classissues. Advocates nature and knew how and when (and when not) to make theirappeals at the same timethattheyeach argued,and believed, accordingly,

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thatonlytheirrespective pointsof view would advanceAthensas a the whole. To plead againstEphialtesand Periclesthat eunomia, state ruled by law, had the highermoralclaim, was well-ordered a plea forthestatusquo dressedup in fancy language.34 merely Aristotle wrote the book on theAthenian In his little constitution, following:
as a demagogic measure to was thefirst to givepayforjuryservice, Pericles who possessedthe fortune of a counter the wealthof Cimon. The latter, one ofwhomwas ofhis fellow-demesmen, ... supported every many tyrant from himenough for hissustenance. Besides, to comedaily andreceive free so thatanyone whowishedcouldtakefrom noneofhis estates was enclosed, and on theadvice suchlargesse, itsfruits. Pericles' did notpermit property whatwas their of Damonides. . he distributed amongthe people from own ... and so he introduced payforthejurors.35

and as I indicated Aristotle earlier, himself, praisedPericles'regime but otherswho he refusedresponsibility forthis sillyexplanation, itwas a telling and after instance him,thought it,bothbefore repeated of demagogy to the common pandering people. The obviousretort in equal measure, is to askwhether whatCimondidwas notpandering was notpandering, or whether to pay forjuryservice too, opposition but in that case to the men of property. No usefulanalysisis fortheyserveonlyto concealtherealgrounds possiblein suchterms, as a form fordisagreement.If one is opposedto fulldemocracy of thenit is wrongto encourage in government, popularparticipation the juriesby offering pay; but it is wrongbecause the objectiveis statusby proposing not because Pericles obtained leadership wrong, ifonefavours a democratic and carrying themeasure. Andviceversa, system. from all thisis a verysimpleproposition, What emerges namely, - I use the word in a neutralsense - were a that demagogues in theAthenian structural element system. By thisI mean, political at all without thatthesystem could notfunction them;second, first, of class thatthe termis equallyapplicableto all leaders,regardless or pointof view; and third, rather thatwithin broadlimits theyare to be judgedindividually or their notby their manners but methods, their is I need add, that, by hardly performance.(And precisely ifnotin books.) Up to a pointone can howthey were judgedin life, withthe modern easilyparallelthe Athenian demagogue politician, but theresoon comesa pointwhendistinctions mustbe drawn, not because the workof government has becomeso muchmore merely betweena complex,but more basicallybecause of the differences directand a representative democracy. I need not repeatwhat I have already said about the mass-meeting (with its uncertain

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aboutthelackofa bureaucracy and a party and, composition), system, as a result,the continuous state of tensionin whichan Athenian livedand worked. But thereis one consequence which demagogue needsa little for these conditions make an examination, up important of an apparently part(if not the whole)of the explanation negative feature of Athenian and of Greekpolitics generally. David politics, Hume put it thisway:
impracticable; but such inveterate rage between the factions, and such

To exclude faction a free is very from ifnotaltogether difficult, government,

liberty,but seem not to have understoodit verywell.36

maxims are found, in modern alone. times, amongst religious bloody parties In ancienthistory we may alwaysobserve,where one partyprevailed, thenobles whether orpeople(forI can observe no difference in thisrespect), butchered . . . . No form ofprocess, that . .. and banished they immediately no law, no trial,no pardon. . These people were extremely fond of

is how nearshe cameto being The remarkable aboutAthens thing of Hume's, to the completeexceptionto this correct observation in other from stasis in its ultimate words, meaning. The beingfree, a briefcivil war. was established in 508 B.C. following democracy of nearlytwo centuries, in its history armed terror, Thereafter, orlaw,was employed without on only twooccasions, butchery process which in 411 and 404,bothtimes factions seizedcontrol by oligarchic of the stateforbriefperiods. And the secondtime,in particular, the democratic whenit regainedpower,was generousand faction, in its of the oligarchs, treatment so muchso thatthey law-abiding Plato. Writing abouttherestoration of403, wrung praiseevenfrom thatsomementooksavage he said that"no one shouldbe surprised but in personalrevengeagainsttheirenemiesin this revolution, is the This not to behaved returning party general equitably".37 thatthe two centuries freefrom individual acts weretotally suggest of injustice and brutality. Hume - speakingof Greece generally - observed"no difference in this and not of Athensin particular thefactions. We seemto havea less clearvisionof between respect" mirrorof men like Athens,at least, blocked by the distorting which the exceptional and Plato, magnifies Thucydides, Xenophon - such as the trialand incidents of extreme democratic intolerance and the who won the battleof Arginusae of the generals execution while obliterates ofSocrates; itminimizes andoften trial andexecution on the otherside, forexample, the even worsebehaviour altogether in 462 or 461 and ofAndrocles ofEphialtes thepolitical assassination ofthepopularleaders. in 411, each in his timethemostinfluential forms of stasisso common If Athenslargely escapedthe extreme Athenian she could notescape itslessermanifestations. elsewhere,

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quality. The objectiveon each side politicshad an all-or-nothing but to crushit, to beheadit the opposition to defeat was not merely its leaders. And often enoughthisgame was played by destroying forleadership. withinthe sides, as a numberof men manoeuvred chief the instrumentaland the was The chief trial, political technique and thesycophants. These,too,I would itieswerethedining-clubs or not an accidental a part of the system, argue,were structurally the so-calledgraphe avoidableexcrescence. Ostracism, paranomon, of archons,generalsand other and the formalpopular scrutiny as safetydevices,either introduced were all deliberately officials, or against individual tyranny) power(and potential againstexcessive haste and or and malfeasance unthinking passion against corruption it may be easy enough to in the Assemblyitself.38Abstractly these devices in intention, demonstrate that,however praiseworthy were theonlykind trouble is that The abuse. invited they inevitably was a directone, of device available,again because the democracy and so forth. Leaders and would-be lackinga partymachinery but to makeuse of them,and to seek out leadershad no alternative andopponents. and breaking stillother competitors waysofharassing no doubt was on the participants, Hard as this all-out warfare it was altogether that it does notfollow unfair and viciouson occasion, as a whole. Substantialinequalities, an evil for the community of opinion and legitimate of interest, serious conflicts divergences conflict is not only werereal and intense. Under such conditions, it is a virtuein democratic inevitable, politics,for it is conflict combinedwith consent,and not consentalone, which preserves issue from intooligarchy. On the constitutional democracy eroding it was theadvocates of whichdominated so muchofthefifth century and they did so precisely popular democracywho triumphed, a partisan forit and fought hard. They fought because theyfought in attributing madethecorrect and the Old Oligarch diagnosis fight, hisinsight, or perhaps to justthat. Of course, his Athenian strength did not extendso faras to notethe factthatin his day the honesty, democracy'sleaders were still men of substance,and often of not onlyPericles, but Cleon and Cleophon, aristocratic background: led thedemocratic andthenThrasybulus andAnytus. The twolatter in 403, and in following in overthrowing the Thirty faction Tyrants their victorywith the amnestywhich even Plato praised. The classfight; it also drewsupport from was nota straight partisan fight without rules amongthe richand the well-born. Nor was it a fight or legitimacy. The democraticcounter-slogan to eunomiawas and,as Vlastoshas said,theAthenians isonomia, pursued"thegoal of

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but in supportof the rule of politicalequality.. . not in defiance, law". The Athenian poor,he noted,did notonce raisethestandard Greek revolutionary demand - redistribution of the land the fifth and fourth centuries.39 throughout In those twocenturies Athens muchthe was,byall pragmatic tests, Greekstate,witha powerful of community, witha greatest feeling toughness and resilience tempered,even granted its imperial and sense of equity and responsibility ambitions, by a humanity forits day (and formanyanother quite extraordinary day as well). Lord Acton,paradoxically to enough,was one of the fewhistorians have graspedthe historic of the "The of significance amnesty 403. hostile parties",he wrote,"were reconciled,and proclaimedan in history".40Thefirst in history, the first amnesty, despiteall the familiar crowd the the weaknesses, despite psychology, slaves,the of the majority personalambitionof manyleaders,the impatience withopposition. Nor was this the only Athenian innovation: the structure and mechanismof the democracywere all their own as theygropedforsomething without invention, having precedent, to go on but theirown notionof freedom, theircommunity nothing their willingness to inquire (or at least to accept the solidarity, of consequences inquiry), and their widely shared political experience. Much of the creditforthe Athenian achievement mustgo to the of the it state. seems to me, is beyond That, politicalleadership would not have been disputedby the average dispute. It certainly the occasional Athenian. Despite all thetensions and uncertainties, snap judgmentand unreasonableshift in opinion, the people a Periclesformorethantwo decades,as theysupported supported kind of man, Demosthenes,under very different very different like them(less later. These men,and others conditions a century or able a lessconsistent wellknown were to more carry through now), and successfulprogrammeover long stretchesof time. It is of to ignorethisfact,or to ignorethe structure altogether perverse life Athens what she while one which became was, by political or Plato and looks only at the followsthe lead of Aristophanes of the politicians, or at the crooksand failures among personalities of an ideal existence. or at some norms ethical them, In the end Athenslost her freedom and independence, brought with down by a superior external power. She wentdownfighting, of whatwas at stakeclearer an understanding thanthatpossessedby many critics in later ages. That final struggle was led by a demagogue. We cannothave it both ways: we Demosthenes,

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of two centuries, cannotpraiseand admirethe achievement and at the same time dismissthe demagogues who were the architects of ofpolicy, or theAssembly thepolitical framework and themakers in and through whichtheydid their work. M. I. Finley Jesus College, Cambridge

NOTES
1 This is a revised text of a paper read to the Hellenic Society in London on 25 March 1961, of which a shortened version was broadcast on the Third Programmeof the B.B.C. and published in The Listenerof 5 and 12 October to ProfessorsA. Andrewes and A. H. M. Jones, Messrs. 1961. I am grateful P. A. Brunt and M. J. Cowling foradvice and criticism. new edn., (London, 1862), v. p. 317 n. 3. 2 Thuc., 8.1.1. ofGreece, 3 A History 6 Thuc., 2.65.9-11. 4 Thuc., 6.1-25. 6 Used only in 4.21.3, and "demagogy" in 8.65.2. 7 Thuc., 2.65.8. 8Const. of Athens,27-28; cf. Politics, 2.9.3 (I274a3-IO). A. W. Gomme, A Historical Commentary on Thucydides, (Oxford, 1956), ii. p. 193, points out that "Plutarch divided Perikles' political career sharply into two halves, the first when he did use base demagogic arts to gain power, the second when he had gained it and used it nobly". SAristophanes uses "demagogy" and "demagogic" once each in the lines 191 and 217, respectively. Otherwisein his survivingplays there Knights, is only the verb "to be a demagogue", also used once (Frogs, 419). 10 Thuc., 8.86. 11 The only systematicanalysis known to me, and that a brief one, is the inaugural lecture of D. Loenen, Stasis, (Amsterdam,1953). He saw, contrary to the view most common among modern writers,that "illegality is precisely element in stasis" (p. 5). 12 Gorgias, 502E-519D. not the constant 13 See R. Bambrough, "Plato's Political Analogies", in Philosophy,Politics and Society,ed. Peter Laslett, (Oxford, 1956), pp. 98-115. 14 It is developed most fully in his long account (3.69-85) of the stasis in Corcyra in 427 B.C. 15 Arist., Pol., 3.4-5 (1278b-79b), 4.6-7 (1293b-94b); Polyb. 6.3-9. 16Arist., Pol., 6.2.7-8 (I319a); cf. Xenophon, Hellenica 5.2.5-7. 17 Pseudo-Xenophon, Const. of Athens, 3.1; see A. Fuks, "The 'Old i (1954), PP. 21-35. Oligarch'," Scripta Hierosolymitana, 18AthenianDemocracy,(Oxford, 1957), ch. iii. 19 E. A. Havelock, The Liberal Temperin Greek Politics, (London, 1957), reviewedby A. Momigliano in Riv. stor.ital., lxxii (1960), pp. 534-41. 20 Aspectsof theAncientWorld, (Oxford, 1946), pp. 40-45. 21 Politics,7.4.7 (1326b3-7). 22 That Aristotle drew very importantconclusions fromthis state of affairs has already been indicated,at note 16. 24 Thuc., 23 Thuc., 2.65.1-4. 3.27-50. 25 Thuc., 8.53-54. 26 See the valuable article by O. Reverdin, "Remarques sur la vie politique ii (1945), Pp. 201-12. d'Athenes au Ve siecle", Museum Helveticum, 27 P. Cloch6, "Les hommes politiques et la justice populaire dans l'Athenes du IVe siecle", Historia, ix (1960), pp. 80-95, has recentlyargued that this threat is exaggerated by modern historians,at least for the fourth century. Useful as his assembling of the evidence is, he lays too much stress on the argumentfrom silence, whereas the sources are far fromfull enough to bear such statisticalweight. 28 A review in The Listener(2 Feb. 1961), p. 233.

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Arist.,Const., 28.3. Plutarch, Pericles, 11.2. It was against such tactics that the restored in democracy 41o required membersof the Council to swear to take theirseats by lot: Philochorus 328 F 140 (in Frag. gr. Hist., ed. F. Jacoby). 31Arist., Const., 28.I. 32 Xen., Apology, 30-32. See generally Georges Meautis, L'aristocratieathdnienne, (Paris, 1927). 33 Thuc., 8.68-91. the ideal of the past and even of Solon ... now meant the 34 "Eunomia ... best constitution,based on inequality. It was now the ideal of oligarchy": Ehrenberg,Aspects,p. 92. 5 Arist.,Const.,27.3-4. 36 "Of the Populousness ofAncientNations", in Essays,World's Classics edn., Cf. (London, 1903), pp. 405-406. Jacob Burckhardt,GriechischeKulturgeschichte, (reprintDarmstadt, 1956), i. pp. 8o-81. 37 Epistles,VII 325B; cf. Xen., Hell., 2.4-43; Arist.,Const.,40. could 38 The fourth-century legislative procedure by means of nomothetai properlybe added to this list; see A. R. W. Harrison, "Law-Making at Athens at the End ofthe FifthCenturyB.C.",Jour. Hell. Studies,lxxv (1955), pp. 26-35. lxxiv (1953), PP. 337-66. 31 G. Vlastos, "Isonomia", Amer. Jour. Philology, Cf. Jones, Democracy,p. 52: "In general... democrats tended like Aristotle to regardthe laws as a code laid down once forall by a wise legislator. . . which, immutable in principle, might occasionally require to be clarified or supplemented". The "rule of law" is a complicatedsubject on its own, but it is not the subject ofthispaper. Nor is the evaluationofindividualdemagogues, A. G. Woodhead, "Thucydides' Portrait e.g. Cleon, on whom see most recently of Cleon", Mnemosyne, 4th ser., xiii (1960), pp. 289-317; A. Andrewes, "The issue of The Phoenix. Mytilene Debate", to appear in a forthcoming and Power, 40 "The Historyof Freedom in Antiquity",in Essays on Freedom ed. G. Himmelfarb,(London, 1956), p. 64. The paradox can be extended: in reviewing Grote, John Stuart Mill wrote about the years leading up to the oligarchic coups of 411 and 404: "The Athenian Many, of whose democratic and suspicion we hear so much, are ratherto be accused of too easy irritability and good-natured a confidence,when we reflectthat they had living in the midst of them the very men who, on the firstshow of an opportunity,were ready to compass the subversion of the democracy. . . .": Dissertationsand ii (London, 1859), p. 540. Discussions,

The ANNUAL CONFERENCE of the Past and Present will be held on Monday,9 July1962 at Birkbeck Society College,London. The subjectwill be: COLONIALISM AND NATIONALISM IN AFRICA AND EUROPE Full details,with a replyform,are given on the leaflet in thisissue. inserted The ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the Past and Present willbe heldat theconclusion oftheafternoon Society sessionof the Conference.

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