Governing and societies: In-depth questions I (A. Greek Antiquity)

Language

French

Content

By examining literary and epigraphic sources, as well as the main hypotheses put forward by modernists, this course offers a diachronic overview of modes of governance and social organization in classical and archaic Athens.
The starting point will be the institutions of Demosthenes' time (chap. 1). We will then attempt to put them back into perspective by moving progressively backwards into the city's past. The remainder of the first part will study institutional and religious life in the Attic demes (chap. 2), the rewriting of "ancestral" laws at the end of the Peloponnesian War (chap. 3), before returning to the Clisthenian reforms and the problems - notably of chronology - that remain in their regard (chap. 4).
The second part is devoted to archaic Athens. It will focus on the role of tyrants (chap. 1) and legislators (Dracon, Solon; chap. 2) in the formation of the city, as well as the problems posed by the "synoecism" that is supposed to have given rise to the Athenian city at the time of Theseus (chap. 3).

Teaching methods

Lecture with readings and analysis of ancient documents (in translation)

Evaluation methods

Written exam (2h)

Online resources

Syllabus and slideshows

Faculty or entity

EHAC