For Tuesday, October 19:
The Old Oligarch
This document, written by a contemporary of Pericles, presents an opposing view of Athenian democracy
RASCALS FARE BETTER THAN GOOD CITIZENS
I, 1. As for the constitution of the Athenians, their choice of this
type of constitution I do not approve, for in choosing thus they chose
that rascals should fare better than good citizens. This then is why I
do not approve. However, this being their decision, I shall show how well
they preserve their constitution, and how well otherwise they are acting
where the rest of Greece thinks that they are going wrong.
2. First of all then I shall say that at Athens the poor and the
commons seem justly to have the advantage over the well-born and the wealthy;
for it is the commons which mans the fleet and has brought the state her
power, and the steersmen and the boatswains and the shipmasters and the
lookout-men and the ship-builders — these have brought the state her power
much rather than the infantry and the well-born and the good citizens.
This heing so it seems just that all should have a share in offices filled
by lot or by election, and that any citizen who wishes should be allowed
to speak. (3.) Then in those offices which bring security to the whole
commons if they are in the hands of good citizens, but if not ruin, the
commons desires to have no share. They do not think that they ought to
have a share through the lot in the supreme commands or in the cavalry
com-mands, for the commons realizes that it reaps greater benefit by not
having these offices in its own hands, but by allowing men of standing
to hold them. All those offices however whose end is pay and family benefits
the commons does seek to hold.
4. Secondly, some folk are surprised that everywhere they give the
advantage to rascals, the poor, and the democrats rather than to good citizens.
This is just where they will be seen to be preserving the democracy. For
if the poor and the common folk and the worse elements are treated well,
the growth of these classes will exalt the democracy; whereas if the rich
and the good citizens are treated well the democrats strengthen their own
opponents.
5. In every land the best element is opposed to democracy. Among
the best elements there is very little license and injustice, very great
discrimination as to what is worthy, while among the commons there is very
great ignorance, disor-derliness and rascalit ; for poverty tends to lead
them to what is disgraceful as oes lack of education and the ignorance
which befalls some men as a result of
lack of means.
6. It may be said that they ought not to have allowed everyone in
turn to make speeches or sit on the Council, but only those of the highest
capability and quality. But in allowing even rascals to speak they are
also very well advised. For if the good citizens made speeches and joined
in deliberations, good would result to those like themselves and ill to
the democrats. As it is, anyone who wants, a rascally fellow maybe, gets
up and makes a speech, and devises what is to the advantage of himself
and those like him. (7.) Someone may ask how such a fellow would know what
is to the advantage of himself or the commons. They know that
this man’s ignorance, rascality and goodwill are more beneficial
than the good citizen’s worth, wisdom, and ill will.
8. From such procedure then a city would not attain the ideal, but
the de-mocracy would be best preserved thus. For it is the wish of the
commons not that the state should be well ordered and the commons itself
in complete subjection, but that the commons should have its freedom and
be in control; disorderliness is of little consequence to it. From what
you consider lack of order come the strength and the liberty of the commons
itself. (9.) If on the other hand you investigate good order, first of
all you will see that the most capable make laws for them; then the good
citizens will keep the rascals in check and will deliberate on matters
of state, refusing to allow madmen to sit on the Council or make speeches
or attend the general assemblies. Such advantages indeed would very soon
throw the com-mons into complete subjection.
LICENSE ALLOWED TO SLAVES AND ALIENS
10. The license allowed to slaves and aliens at Athens is extreme
and a blow is forbidden there, nor will a slave make way for you. I shall
tell you why this is the custom of the country. If it were legal for a
slave or an alien or a freedman to be beaten by a freeman, you would often
have taken the Athenian for a slave and struck him; for the commons there
does not dress better than the slaves and the aliens, and their general
appearance is in no way superior. (11.) If anyone is sur-prised also at
their allowing slaves, that is some of them, to live luxuriously and magnificently
there, here too they would be seen to act with wisdom. In a naval state
slaves must serve for hire, that we may receive the fee for their labor,
and we must let them go free. Where there are rich slaves it is no longer
profitable that my slave should be afraid of you. In Sparta my slave is
afraid of you. If your slave is afraid of me there will be a danger even
of his giving his own money to avoid personal risks. (12.) This then is
why we placed even slaves on a footing of equality with free men; and we
placed aliens on a footing of equality with citizens
Il because the state has need of aliens, owing to the number of
skilled trades and because of the fleet. For this reason then we were right
to place even the aliens
on a footing of equality. .
THE ALLIES ARE IN THE POSITION OF SLAVES
14. As for the allies, that the Athenians leave home and, as it is
thought, bring false accusations against the good citizens and hate them
they know that the ruler cannot help but be hated by the ruled, and that
if the rich and the good citizens in the various cities have control the
rule of the commons at Athens will be very short-lived. This then is why
they disfranchise the good citizens, rob them of their wealth, drive them
into exile, or put them to death, while they exalt the rascals. The good
citizens of Athens protect the good citizens in the allied cities, realizing
that it is to their own advantage always to protect the best elements in
the various cities. (15.) It might be suggested that the ability of the
allies to pay tribute is the strength of Athens. The democrats think it
more advantageous that each individual Athenian should ~O55C55 the wealth
of the allies and the allies only enough to live on, and continue working
without having the power to conspire.
16. The commons of Athens is also thought to be ill-advised in compelling the allies to travel to Athens to have their law-suits tried. They meet this criticism hy reckoning up all the benefits to the Athenian commons that this involves: first of all the receipt of pay out of the court fees all the year round; then while re-maining at home without sending out ships they manage the allied cities, and protect the party of the commons while they ruin their opponents in the courts. If each of the allies tried their law-suits at home, out of hatred for Athenians they would have destroyed those of their own people most friendly to the Athenian commons. (17.) In addition the commons of Athens gains the following advantages from having the allied law-suits tried at Athens. First the five per cent duty levied at the Peiraeus hrings more in to the state; (18.) next, anyone who has a lodging-house is more prosperous, and so is the man who has a couple of hacks or a slave for hire; then the heralds are more prosperous as a result of the visits of the allies. Above all this, if the allies did not come to Athens for their law-suits they would honor only those Athenians who leave home the generals, the naval command-ers, and envoys. As it is, all the allies individually must fawn upon the Athenian commons, realizing that they must come to Athens and appear as defendant or prosecutor hefore the commons and the commons alone, for that forsooth is the law at Athens; and in the law-courts they must make supplications and grasp so-and-so hy the hand as he enters. This then is why the allies are rather in the position of slaves of the Athenian commons. .
CONTROL OF THE SEA
11,3. Of such mainland states as are subject to Athenian rule the
large are in subjection hecause of fear, the small simply because of need;
there is not a city which does not require both import and export trade,
and it will not have that unless it is subject to the rulers of the sea.
7. If there is any need to mention less important facts too, command
of the sea and contact with the different people of different countries
were the first means of introducing luxurious ways of living. The delicacies
of Sicily, Italy, Cy-prus, Egypt, Lydia, Pontus, the Peloponnese, in fact
of any country, all converge upon one point as a result of the command
of the sea. (8.) Then hearing every tongue they adopted a phrase from this
tongue and a phrase from that. The Greeks as a whole enjoy a language,
a way of life, and a general appearance which is rathei\ their own, the
Athenians a hotch-potch of those of all the Creeks and foreigners. .
11. They alone can possess the wealth of Greeks and foreigners.
If a city is rich in shipbuilding timber where will it dispose of it unless
it win the consent of the ruler of the sea? What if some city is rich in
iron or bronze or cloth? Where will it dispose of it unless it win the
consent of the ruler of the sea? These however are just the very things
of which my ships are made somebody’s wood, some-body’s iron, somebody’s
bronze, somebody’s cloth and somebody’s wax. (12.) Moreover they will not
allow our rivals to take their goods elsewhere or (if they try) they will
not use the sea. I pass my time in idleness, and because of the sea I have
all these products of the earth, whereas no other single city has two of
these commodities; the same city does not possess both timber and cloth,
but
where cloth is plentiful the country is flat and treeless, nor do bronze and iron come from the same city, nor does one city possess two or three of the other com’7nodities, but one has one, another has another. .
DEMOCRACIES ARE IRRESPONSIBLE
17. Again oligarchical states must abide by their alliances
and their oaths. If
ey do not keep to the agreement penalties can be exacted from the
few who made it. But whenever the commons makes an agreement it can lay
the blame on the individual speaker or proposer, and say to the other party
that it was not present and does not approve what they know was agreed
upon in full assembly; and should it be decided that this is not so, the
commons has discovered a hundred excuses for not doing what they may not
wish to do. If any ill result from a decision of the commons it lays the
blame on a minority for opposing and work-ing its ruin, whereas if any
good results they take the credit to themselves.
18. They do not allow caricature and abuse of the commons, lest
they should bear themselves evilly spoken of, but they do allow you to
caricature any individ-ual you wish to. They well know that generally the
man who is caricatured is not of the commons or of the crowd, but someone
rich or well born or influential, and that few of the poor and democrats
are caricatured, and they only because they are husy-bodies and try to
overreach the commons; so they are not angry when such men are caricatured
either.
RECAPITULATION
III, 1. The type of the constitution of the Athenians I do not approve,
but as
they saw fit to be a democracy in my opinion they preserve their
democracy well
by employing the means I have pointed out. .
10. The Athenians are also thought to be ill advised because they
take sides with the worst elements in cities divided by faction. They do
this with good rea-son. If they sided with the better elements they would
not side with those who bold the same opinions as themselves, for in no
city is the better element well inclined to the commons, but in each the
worse element is well inclined to the commons; like favors like. This then
is why the Athenians side with the elements akin to themselves.
Negative Confession, Ancient Egyptian Prayer
The following prayer was recited as the deceased face Osiris in the
Hall of Double Maati. The heart of the
deceased was then weighed by the god Anubis. If it was light as a feather,
the deceased entered eternal life; if it
was not the soul of the deceased was devoured.
"Lord of Justice is your name. In truth I have come to you, and I have
brought maat to you, and I have expelled
wickedness for you.
1.I have not done evil to mankind.
2.I have not oppressed the members of my family.
3.I have not wrought evil in the place of right and truth.
4.I have had no knowledge of worthless men.
5.I have not wrought evil.
6.I have not wrought evil.
7.I have not brought forward my name for exaltation to
honors.
8.I have not ill-treated servants.
9.I have not belittled a god.
10.I have not defrauded the oppressed one of his property.
11.I have not done that which is an abomination unto the
gods.
12.I have made no man to suffer hunger.
13.I have made no one to weep.
14.I have done no murder.
15.I have not given the order for murder to be done for
me.
16.I have not inflicted pain upon mankind.
17.I have not committed fornication.
18.I have not encroached upon the fields of others.
19.I have not added to the waits of the scales [in order
to cheat buyers].
20.I have not carried away the milk from the mouths of
children.
21.I have not driven away the cattle, which were upon
the pastures.
22.I have not turned back water at the time that it should
flow.
23.I have not cut a cutting in a canal of running water.
24.I have not driven off cattle from the property of the
gods.
25.I have not obstructed a god in his procession.
I am pure! I am pure! I am pure! I am pure!
Adapted from Nicholas Bailkey, Readings in Ancient History
Hammurabi's Code (ca. 1750 B.C.E.)
1. If a man accuse a man, and charge him with murder, but cannot convict him, the accuser shall be put to death.
2. If a man charge a man with sorcery, but cannot convict him, he who is charged with sorcery shall go to the sacred river, and he shall throw himself into the river; if the river overcome him, his prosecutor shall take to himself his house. If the river show t at man to be innocent and he come forth unharmed, he that charged him with sorcery shall be put to death. He who threw himself into the river shall take to himself the house of his accuser.
3. If a man, in a case (before the court), offer testimony concerning deeds of violence, and do not establish the testimony that he has given -- if that case he a case involving life, that man shall he put to death.
14. If a man steal a man's son who is a minor, he shall be put to death....
16. If a man harbor in his house a runaway male or female slave of the palace or of a common man and do not bring him forth at the call of the commandant, the owner of the house shall be put to death.
17. If a man catch a runaway male or female slave, in the country, and
bring him back to the owner, the owner of the slave shall pay him two shekels
of silver.
21. If a man make a breach in a house, they shall put him to death
in front of that breach, and they shall bury him there.
22. If a man practice brigandage and be captured, that man shall he
put to death.
23. If the brigand be n the man who has been robbed shall establish
the amount of his loss 1, and the city and the governor, in whose land
or border the robbery was committed, shall compensate him for whatsoever
was lost.
24. If there were loss of life, the city and governor shall pay one
mana of silver to his heirs. .
42. If a man rent a field for cultivation and do not produce any grain
in the field, because he has not performed the necessary work on the field
they shall convict him, and he shall give to the owner of the field grain
on the basis of the adjacent (fields). .
55. If a man open his canal for irrigation and neglect it and he let
the water carry away an adjacent field, he shall measure out grain on the
basis of the adjacent fields.
100. If he (the peddler) , where he went, he shall write down the interest
on all the money he received, and he shall count up his days, and make
his return to the merchant.
101. If he made no money where he went, the agent shall double the
amount of money obtained and he shall pay it to the merchant...
103. If, when he goes on a journey, an enemy rob him of anything he
was carrying, the agent shall take an oath in the name of God and go free.
...
108. If a barmaid do not take grain in payment of drink, but if she
take money by the great stone, or make the measure of drink smaller than
the measure of grain, they shall prosecute that barmaid, and they shall
throw her into the water.
109. If outlaws hatch a conspiracy in the house of a wine-seller, and
she do not arrest these outlaws and bring them to the palace, that wine-seller
shall be put to death.
110. If a priestess or a nun who is not resident in a convent open
a wineshop or enter a wineshop for a drink, they shall burn that woman...
129. If the wife of a man be taken in lying with another man, they
shall bind them and throw them into the water. If the husband of the woman
spare the life of his wife, the king shall spare the life of his servant
(i.e., subject). . .
131. If a man accuse his wife and she have not been taken in lying
with an other man, she shall take an oath in the name of God and she shall
return to her house....
137. If a man set his face to put away a concubine who has borne him
children or a wife who has presented him with children, they shall return
to that woman her dowry and shall give to her part of field, garden, and
goods, and she
shall bring up her children; from the time that her children are grown
up, from whatever is given to her children they shall give to her a portion
corresponding to that of a son and the man of her choice may marry her.
138. If a man put away his wife who has not borne him children, he shall give her money to the amount of her marriage settlement and he shall make good to her the dowry which she brought from her father's house and then he may put her away. .
142. If a woman hate her husband and say, "Thou shalt not have me," her past shall be inquired into for any deficiency of hers; and if she have been careful and be without past sin and her husband have been going out and greatly belittling her, that woman has no blame. She shall take her dowry and go to her father's house.
143. If she have not been careful, have been going out, ruining her house and belittling her husband, they shall throw that woman into the water.
145 If a man take a wife and she do not present him with children, and he set his face to take a concubine, that man may take a concubine and bring her into his house. That concubine shall not take precedence of his wife..
153. If the wife of a man bring about the death of her husband because of another man, they shall impale that woman. .
162. If a man take a wife and she bear him children and that woman die, her father may not lay claim to her dowry. Her dowry belongs to her children....
169. If he have committed a crime against his father sufficiently grave to cut him off from sonship, they shall condone his first (offense). If he commit a grave crime a second time, the father may cut off his son from sonship. .
195. If a man strike his father, they shall cut off his hand.
196. If a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye.
197. If he break a man's bone, they shall break his bone.
198. If he destroy the eye of a common man or break a bone of a common man, he shall pay one mana of silver.
199. If he destroy the eye of a man's slave or break a bone of a man's slave, he shall pay one-half his price.
200. If a man knock out a tooth of a man of his own rank, they shall knock out his tooth.
201. If he knock out a tooth of a common man, he shall pay one-third mana of silver.
202. If a man smite on the cheek a man who is his superior, he shall receive sixty strokes with an oxtail whip in public. .
215. If a physician make a deep incision upon a man (i.e., perform a major operation) with his bronze lancet and save the man's life; or if he operate on the eye socket of a man with his bronze lancet and save that man's eye, he shall receive ten shekels of silver. . .
218. If a physician make a deep incision upon a man with his bronze lancet and cause the man's death, or operate on the eye socket of a man with his bronze lancet and destroy the man's eye, they shall cut off his hand. . .
226. If a barber without (the consent of) the owner of the slave cut the hair of the forehead of a slave (making him) unrecognizable, they shall cut off the hand of that barber. . .
229. If a builder erect a house for a man and do not make its construction firm, and the house which he built collapse and cause the death of the owner of the house, that builder shall be put to death.
230. If it cause the death of a son of the owner of the house, they shall put to death a son of that builder.
231. If it cause the death of a slave of the owner of the house, he shall give to the owner of the house slave for slave.
278. If a man buy a male or female slave, and the slave have not completed his month when epilepsy attacks him, the buyer shall return him to the seller and shall receive the money which he paid.
279. If a man buy a male or female slave of a man in a foreign country, and there be a claim against him, the seller shall be responsible for the claim.
280. If a man buy a male or female slave of a man in a foreign country, and if when he comes back to his own land the (former) owner of the male or female slave recognize his male or female slave, if the male or female slap be natives of the land, their freedom shall be granted without money.
281. If they be natives of another land, the buyer shall declare before God the money which he paid (for them), and the owner of the male or female slave shall give to the merchant the money which he paid out, and shall (thus) redeem his male or female slave.
282. If a male slave say to his master, "Thou art not my master," his
master shall prove him to be his slave and shall cut off his ear.
From The Global Experience, Readings in World History to 1500, vol.1
(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2nd ed. 1992), pp. 27-30.