Building Democracy in Late Archaic Athens

In 508/7 B.C.E., after years of chaos and uncertainty, the city of Athens was rocked by a momentous occurrence: the passage of a series of reforms that resulted in what has come to be known as the world's first democracy. Exactly how the Athenians did this is still a fundamental question 2,500 years later. The results of the reforms transformed the very nature of what it meant to be Athenian and their far-reaching effects would come to leave their mark on nearly every aspect of society, including the structures at which they prayed and in which they debated legislation. By attending to the built environment broadly, and monumental architecture specifically, this book investigates the built environment of ancient Athens precisely during this time, the late Archaic period (ca. 514/13 - 480/79 B.C.E.). It was these decades, filled with transition and disorder, when the Athenians transformed their political system from a tyranny to a democracy. Concurrent with the socio-political changes, they altered the physical landscape and undertook the monumental articulation of the city and countryside. Interpreting the nature of the fledgling democracy from a material standpoint, this book approaches the questions and problems of the early political system through the lens of buildings. The focus on monumental structures erected during this particular time period demonstrates how the built environment worked to facilitate the functioning of the nascent political regime. While Athenian democracy--its institutions, ideology, and capabilities--has been intensively studied, little attention has been paid to the intersection between built structures and the political system during its earliest phases. This book draws attention to a pivotal period of Athenian political history through the built environment, thereby exposing the richness of the material record and illustrating how it participated in the creation of a new democratic Athenian identity.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Chapter 1: The Akropolis: Monuments and Military Dominance Chapter 2: The Agora: Form, Function, and Ideology Chapter 3: The Astu: The Architectural Matrix of the Polis Chapter 4: The Demes: Delineation and Interconnectivity Chapter 5: Buildings and Democracy Appendix I: Building Chronology in Athens and Attika, 508/7 - 480/79 B.C.E. Appendix II: IG I3 4B, The Hekatompedon Decree: Text, Translation, and Brief Commentary Appendix III: Dating the Old Bouleuterion and Stoa Basileios Bibliography

About the Author :
Jessica Paga is a Classical Archaeologist, working primarily on ancient Greek architecture, political theory, and ritual theory. Her work focuses mainly on Archaic and Classical monumental architecture, with particular attention to sacred structures. She is an active field archaeologist in both Sicily and Greece.

Review :
a highly readable synthesis which will form the background for all future exploration of the period [An] eminently readable account, which transcends the confines of the immediate subject matter to address vital questions about the workings of the Athenian proto-democracy itself ... Both as a much-needed study of a little known but vital period in the emergence of democracy and as a paradigm of how a sensitive, intelligent use of archaeology can help shed light on history, this outstanding volume cannot be recommended too enthusiastically. A subtitle for this book should be 'if these walls could talk', because talk they do, and in a wonderful manner ... The book offers an insightful analysis of a pivotal period in Athenian history ... Every ancient historian who aspires to incorporate archaeology and literary sources in an exemplary fashion would do well to read this monograph. This book is highly recommended for all scholars of Athens and Attica, but it speaks to a wider audience as well. Indeed, every ancient historian who aspires to incorporate archaeology and literary sources in an exemplary fashion would do well to read this monograph. This excellent, well-written book by Paga (College of William & Mary) is an in-depth study of a pivotal period in Greek history and archaeology: the Late Archaic period (c. 510â480 BC).... The bookâs strength lies in the way the monuments and their topographical settings are discussed within a political, religious, and social context. The author makes good use not only of the archaeological evidence but also of the literary and epigraphical sources.