Political activity in classical Athens

Abstract

‘Only the naïve or innocent observer’, says Sir Moses Finley in his bookPolitics in the ancient world, ‘can believe that Pericles came to a vital Assembly meeting armed with nothing but his intelligence, his knowledge, his charisma and his oratorical skill, essential as all four attributes were.’ Historians of the Roman Republic have been assiduous in studyingclientelae,factionesand ‘delivering the vote’, but much less work has been done on the ways in which Athenian politicians sought to mobilise support. There have been studies of family connections and of links between individual politicians; there have been studies of the associations known ashetaireiai; but many questions remain unanswered. W. R. Connor inThe new politicians of fifth-century Athenscontrasted an old style of politics, based on ties ofphiliawithin the upper classes, with a new style, which spurnedphiliaand appealed directly to the people. Even in his old style, the votes of the ordinary, middling-to-poor citizens counted for more in the straightforward Athenian assembly than in the Romancomitiawith their complex systems of block votes. Connor limits political friendship to the upper classes; he pours cold water on Sealey's suggestion that rich families might have brought pressure to bear on their tenants and other dependants (saying, ‘The proud and independent Athenian might be expected to resist intimidation’); but apart from general references to largesse he does not really explain how an old-style Cimon or a new-style Cleon would ensure that the assembly was full of voters willing to elect him as general or approve a motion which he proposed. J. K. Davies has tried to take the matter further inWealth and the power of wealth in classical Athens.