ABSTRACT
That we study Athens and Sparta is a result in part of the internal stability which each achieved. In a Greek world where civil strife tended to direct energy inwards, Sparta’s unique form of oligarchy succeeded in avoiding violent overthrow in Lakonia for centuries, while the Athenian constitution in the classical period was subject only briefly to interruption – by the oligarchic regimes of 411-410 and 404-403. Both states were thus free for much of the time to export their energies, with political consequences which we know. Also, in the case of Athens, there resulted sufficient wealth and leisure to produce the literature and art which give classical Greece much of its lasting interest. But in the methods by which they achieved internal stability, Sparta and Athens differed profoundly. In his Politics, Aristotle observes, “When a city contains many men who are excluded from political life and are poor, inevitably that city is full of enemies.”1 Clear-sightedly acknowledging an idea of this kind, Sparta officially recognised as enemies her own excluded and poor Greek population, the helots; a formal declaration of war against them was made each year by the Spartan government.2 In contrast, Athens dealt with the threat of internal enmity by including the poor in political life. There resulted a constitution noted for “habitual gentleness”.3 To most observers, ancient and modern, gentleness and political tolerance have seemingly been of less interest than conflict and intolerance. Our source material concentrates largely on discord. Modern taste for conflict (as reflected, for example, in our news media) may compound the cognitive bias of the ancient sources, and deflect attention from such peaceable aspects of Athenian life as are recorded. Thus, for example, it has traditionally been found interesting that the Athenians put to death Sokrates.4 Less attention is given to the tolerance shown by Athens towards Plato, a disciple of Sokrates, a relative of Kritias (the execrated oligarch of 404-403)5 and the author of sophisticated anti-democratic theory.
