Skip to content
Wellsprings
greek-politicsfeatured in 30 works

Democracy

Rule by the people — power in the hands of the dēmos rather than a king or a wealthy few.

Democracy (dēmokratia, 'people-power') is the system in which sovereign power rests with the whole body of citizens. In classical Athens they wielded it through the assembly, officials chosen by lottery, and large citizen juries. Pioneered in Athens after the reforms of Cleisthenes (c. 508 BCE) and named by the mid-5th century, it was debated by Herodotus, praised by Pericles, and attacked by Plato and Aristotle as prone to demagoguery. Athenian democracy is the historical root of the modern democratic tradition.

How it traveled

  1. Histories
    Thurii (Magna Graecia) · -425
    explains
  2. History of the Peloponnesian War
    Athens · -400
    explains
  3. Concerning the Team of Horses
    Athens · -397
    explains
  4. On the Mysteries
    Athens · -390
    explains
  5. On the Peace with Sparta [attributed]
    Athens · -390
    explains
  6. Defense Against a Charge of Subverting the Democracy
    Athens · -380
    explains
  7. Funeral Oration
    Athens · -380
    explains
  8. Republic
    Athens · -375
    explains
  9. Statesman
    Athens · -358
    explains
  10. Areopagiticus
    Athens · -355
    explains
  11. On the Peace
    Athens · -355
    explains
  12. Hellenica
    Athens · -354
    explains
  13. Against Androtion
    Athens · -354
    explains
  14. On Organization
    Athens · -354
    explains
  15. For the Liberty of the Rhodians
    Athens · -351
    explains
  16. Exordia
    Athens · -349
    explains
  17. Against Timarchus
    Athens · -346
    explains
  18. On the False Embassy
    Athens · -343
    explains
  19. On the Embassy
    Athens · -343
    explains
  20. Panathenaicus
    Athens · -339
    explains
  21. Rhetoric
    Chalcis · -335
    explains
  22. Against Ctesiphon
    Athens · -330
    explains
  23. In Defence of Euxenippus
    Athens · -330
    explains
  24. Res Publica Atheniensium
    Chalcis · -325
    explains
  25. Politics
    Chalcis · -322
    explains
  26. Against Timocrates
    Athens · -322
    explains
  27. Against Leptines
    Athens · -322
    explains
  28. Against Meidias
    Athens · -322
    explains
  29. Divisiones Aristoteleae
    Chalcis · -322
    explains
  30. Histories
    Megalopolis · -118
    explains

Key passages(20)

Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high
Very high

Septem sapientium convivium · Plutarch

Very high

History of the Peloponnesian War · Thucydides

Very high

Against Timarchus · Aeschines

Very high

In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium · Anonymi in Aristotelis Artem Rhetoricam

Very high

Divisiones Aristoteleae · Pseudo-Aristotle

Very high