Got Citizenship in the Ancient World? Touraj Daryaee (UC Irvine)
Dec 14, 2015
CitizenshipImportant Factors in discussing Citizenship
1. Class: Upper / lower – Free/slave
2. Economic Relationship: to city, state, etc.
3. Polis / City: Polity
4. Government: Managing the Polis
Invasion of the Hellas / GreeceIndo-European Greek speaking people
Second millennium BCE (Knossos / Crete destroyed 1450 BCE)
The Two Cities: Sparta & Athens
Examples of diversity among the Helens
Our thought and ancient thought
Athens: It’s been Revolutionary for Ages!
8th-6th BCEAthensArchons: AristocratsKylon: RevolutionaryTyranny: Order Miasma: shedding of bloodDrakon: Man or Myth? Law: Orality vs. Written
Solon
Athenian Democracy
Demos = peopleSolon 594 BCETyranny Cleisthenes 509 BCEDemocracyDirect involvement Women/slaves/foreignersDemocracy / Mediocrity Philosopher-King
Ostracism / OstraconNo one citizen is above others
Aristotle: Athenian Constitution 22:
“The first person banished by ostracism was one of his relatives, Hipparchus son of Charmus of the deme of Collytus, the desire to banish whom had
been Cleisthenes'
principal motive in
making the law”
Mesopotamian LawBe it enacted forever and for all future days: If a son say to
his father: “You are not my father,” he (the father) can cut off his (son’s) locks, make him a slave and sell him for money. If a son say to his mother, “you are not my mother,” she can cut off his locks, turn him out of town, or (at least) drive him away from home, deprive him of citizenship and of inheritance, but his liberty he loses not
Class Conflict
Citizenship & Participation: 509-343 BCE
Patricians = upper class
Plebeians = lower class
4 Tribunes
12 TablesLaw Code (450 BCE)
Plebeian agitation / Class
Curbing arbitrary power
I “If he has broken the bone of a free man, the penalty is to be 300 (large copper coins); in the case of a salve, 150
12 Tables: Privileges & Protections
IX: Concerning a citizen’s rights, they are to declare under oath what they consider best for the community
XI: There is not to be intermarriage with the plebs
Slavery
Spartacus 109 BCE-71 BCE
Soldier / Slave
Gladiator
73 BCE with 70 gladiators
Ravaging Rome
Support from Slave
Pompey: victor
Roman Expansion
Punic Wars
Roman Republic & Carthaginian Kingdom
3 wars
Second war
Attack on Rome
Hannibal
Male Citizen of Rome
Paterfamilias = man of the house
money
life & death
Slaves
Sell family into slavery