Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Humanities, Department of Ancient History, 2002. / Bibliography: leaves 411-439. / Athenian politics and politicians -- Athenian political ideology -- A prosopographical study of the leading Athenian politicians -- Conclusion. / This thesis is a revisionist history of Athens during the much-neglected period between the Lamian and Chremonidean wars. It draws upon all the available literary and epigraphical evidence to provide a reinterpretation of Athenian politics in this confused period. -- Rather than providing a narrative of Athens in the early Hellenistic period (a task which has been admirably completed by Professor Christian Habicht), this thesis seeks to provide a review of Athenian politics and politicians. It seeks to identify who participated in the governing of Athens and their motivations for doing so, to determine what constituted a politician in democratic Athens, and to redefine political ideology. The purpose of this research is to allow a clearer understanding of the Athenian political arena in the early Hellenistic period. -- This thesis is comprised of three sections: -The first provides a definition of what constituted a politician in democratic Athens and how Athenian politicians interacted with each other. -The second discusses Athenian political ideology, and seeks to demonstrate that the Athenian politicians of the early Hellenistic period were just as ideologically motivated as their predecessors in the fifth and fourth centuries. This section seeks to show that the much-maligned Hellenistic democracies were little different from the so-called "true" democracies of the Classical period. The only real difference between these regimes was the fact that whereas Classical Athens was militarily strong and independent, Hellenistic Athens lacked the military capacity to remain free and independent, and was incapable of competing with the Macedonian dynasts as an equal partner. -The third section consists of a series of detailed prosopographical studies of leading Athenian politicians including Demades, Phokion, Demetrios of Phaleron, Stratokles, and Demochares. The purpose of this section is to evaluate the careers of these politicians who played a pivotal role in Athenian politics in order to enable us to better understand the nature of Athenian politics and political ideology in this period. -This thesis also includes an appended list of all the Athenians who meet my definition of a "politician" in democratic Athens. -- The overall aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that there was no real qualitative difference between Athenian democracy in the period between the Lamian and Chremonidean wars and the fifth and fourth century democracies. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / viii, 439 leaves ill

When looking at Dark Age Greece, one of the most important sites to consider is Athens. The Dark Age was a transitional period between the fall of Mycenaean Greece of the Bronze Age, and Archaic Greece of the Iron Age. This period is called the Dark Age because the palaces that ruled the Mycenaean age collapsed, and with them fell civilization in mainland Greece. Writing, fine art, massive architecture, trade, and luxury goods disappear from mainland Greece. But Athens survived the fall of the Mycenaeans. In order to understand the reason why Athens survived one must look at what the causes of the fall of the Mycenaeans were. Theories range from raiders and invasion, to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, droughts, and plagues. One must also examine Greece itself. The landscape and climate of Greece have a large impact on the settlement of the Greeks. The land of Greece also affects what Greek communities were able to do economically, whether a city would be rich or poor. It is because Athens is located in Attica that it survived. Attica had the poorest soil in the Mycenaean world, and was the poorest of the major cities, therefore, when looking at the collapse of the Mycenaeans being caused by people, there would be no reason for said people to raid or invade Athens and Attica. It is because Athens survives that it is such an important site. Athens survived the fall of the Mycenaeans and in doing so acts as a refugee center and a jumping off point for the remaining Mycenaeans to flee east, to the Aegean islands and Anatolia. Athens also stayed occupied during the Dark Age and because of this it was able to make some advancements. In particular Athens was a leader in mainland Greece in the development of iron. Not only this, but Athens became a cultural center during the Dark Age, inventing both proto-geometric and geometric pottery. These styles were adopted by the rest of the Greek world, and Athens was looked to as the influence for these styles. It is because Athens was the poorest city and Attica the poorest area during the Mycenaean age that it survived. Because it survived it was able to continue to develop and in turn influence the rest of mainland Greece.

Constamment habité au cours des siècles, le territoire de l’Attique comporte des couches denses et pleines de trouvailles qui furent conservées ou réintégrées dans les nouvelles réalités naissantes d’une époque à l’autre. On risque toutefois de ne pas pouvoir discerner les étapes en raison de la procédure complexe et longue par laquelle l’espace se structure, une ville se construit et une cité prend sa forme. L’espace athénien s’articule à l’époque où la ville se transforme en centre civique pour le territoire de l’Attique. Nous nous appuyons sur l’examen des dispositifs rituels des VIIe et VIe s. non seulement les temples et les sanctuaires, mais aussi tout aménagement voué aux cultes et aux rites. L’histoire de la topographie cultuelle d’Athènes et de l’Attique nous permet d’étudier l’urbanisation de la ville. Nous proposons ainsi de répondre à de nombreuses questions ayant trait à la localisation, la datation et l’identification des sites comme le Pelargikon, l’Agora archaïque, le Brauronion de l’Acropole, etc. Les indices archéologiques nous amènent à formuler l’hypothèse que l’ensemble du territoire consiste en des unités géographiques secondaires, qui se développent d’une manière indépendante – comme Éleusis et Sounion – et qui se rattachent progressivement à l’espace athénien selon une volonté politique de centralisation, mise en œuvre seulement à partir de l’époque de Clisthène. Enfin, l’étude des sources littéraires permet de déconstruire les représentations spatiales et les revendications ethniques, comme on le constate à propos d’Éleuthère et des confins nord de l’Attique./<p>Attica offers a variety of significant archaeological findings in dense layers that were preserved or reused from one generation to the next, which contributed to form new social realities. However, we may not be able to discern these successive stages because they have been obscured by the complex and lengthy process, both in the physical and political senses, through which the territory and its city center have been built. The Athenian control over Attica took form at a time when the city was becoming a civic urban center for the whole region; this evolution is the result of a long process. This study examines the religious patterns of the archaic period, temples, shrines and any place dedicated to cults and rituals. The history of the cult topography of Athens and Attica in the seventh and sixth century gives us the key to an interpretation of the urban structure. We propose to review several topographical questions of localization and the identification of sites, such as the Pelargikon, the archaic agora, the Brauronion on the Acropolis, and so on. The archaeological evidence leads us to argue that the territory as a whole consisted in secondary geographical units, like Eleusis and Sounion, and was gradually connected to Athens, following the politically motivated centralization, that took place at the time of Cleisthenes. The study of literary sources, mythology and iconography finally leads us to carry out a deconstruction of the spatial and ethnic representations, as we show, concerning Eleutherai and the Northern frontiers of Attica. / Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished