Chapter 4 Athenian Democracy and Its Critics in Republican Rome

In: Brill's Companion to the Legacy of Greek Political Thought
Author:
Jed W. Atkins
Search for other papers by Jed W. Atkins in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
Type:
Chapter
Pages:
107–136
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004679344_006

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

$40.00
Add to Cart
Redeem Access Token

Abstract

This chapter explores the ways in which democratic Athens was pictured and criticised during the late Roman Republic (with a glance at one text written during the early Empire). I discuss Polybius, Cicero, Cornelius Nepos, Diodorus Siculus, Lucretius and Seneca. They echo and adapt Greek criticisms of democracy by Socrates, the ‘Old Oligarch’, Thucydides, Xenophon and Plato. At the same time, the Greek critics themselves do not escape correction and qualification. In their reception of Greek criticisms of democracy, the writers examined in this chapter draw attention to some important conditions for its flourishing. In this way, the reception of the debate over Athenian democracy in Rome continues to have value for those interested in understanding and preserving democracy.

  • Collapse
  • Expand
Series:  Brill's Companions to Philosophy: Ancient Philosophy, Volume: 8 and  Brill's Companions to Philosophy, Volume: 8
Cover Brill's Companion to the Legacy of Greek Political Thought
E-Book ISBN:
9789004679344
Publisher:
Brill
Print Publication Date:
16 Sep 2024
Front Matter
Introduction
Part 1 The Reproduction of Greek Political Thought
Part 2 Greek Thought in New Environments
Part 3 Variation and Adaptation
Part 4 Greek Thought and the Potential for Dissent
Back Matter

  • Algra, K., Barnes, J., Mansfeld, J., and Schofield, M. (eds) (1999), The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy. Cambridge

  • Ando, C. (2010), ‘“A Dwelling beyond Violence:” on the uses and disadvantages of history for contemporary republicans’, History of Political Thought 31 (2): 183–220

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Arena, V. (2012), Libertas and the Practice of Politics in the Late Roman Republic. Cambridge

  • Atkins, J. W. (2013a), Cicero on Politics and the Limits of Reason: The Republic and Laws. Cambridge

  • Atkins, J. W. (2013b), ‘Cicero on the relationship between Plato’s Republic and Laws’, in Sheppard (2013), 15–34

  • Atkins, J. W. (2018a), Roman Political Thought. Cambridge

  • Atkins, J. W. (2018b), ‘Non-domination and the Libera Res Publica in Cicero’s republicanism’, History of European Ideas 44 (6): 756–773

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Atkins, J. W. (2019), ‘Leo Strauss’s Lucretius and the art of writing’, in Burian, Davis, and Strauss Clay (2019), 29–55

  • Atkins, J. W. (2022), ‘Politics, politeia, and rational control’, in Cambiano and Lianeri (2022)

  • Atkins, J. W. and Young, C. E. (2021), ‘Divided sovereignty: Polybius and the compound constitution’, in S. Achilleos and A. Balasopoulos (eds), Reading Texts on Sovereignty: Textual Moments in the History of Political Thought. London, 25–32

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Barnes, J. and Griffin, M. T. (eds) (1997), Philosophia Togata II: Plato and Aristotle at Rome. Oxford

  • Berlin, I. (1969), Four Essays on Liberty. Oxford

  • Brouwer, R. (2011), ‘Polybius and Stoic Tyche’, GRBS 51: 111–32

  • Burian, P., Davis, G., and Strauss Clay, J. (eds) (2019), Euphrosyne: Studies in Ancient Philosophy, History, and Literature in Memory of Diskin Clay. Berlin

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Cambiano, G. and Lianeri, A. (eds) (2022), The Edinburgh Critical History of Greek and Roman Philosophy. Edinburgh

  • Cartledge, P. (2009), Ancient Greek Political Thought in Practice. Cambridge

  • Cartledge, P. (2016), Democracy: A Life. Oxford

  • Clarke, M. T. (2014), ‘Doing violence to the Roman idea of liberty? Freedom as bodily integrity in Roman political thought’, History of Political Thought 35 (2): 211–33

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Cumming, R. D. (1969), Human Nature and History, 2 Vols. Chicago

  • De Nicolay, R. (2021), ‘Licentia: Cicero on the suicide of political communities’, Classical Philology 116 (4)

  • Edge, M. (2009), ‘Athens and the spectrum of liberty’, History of Political Thought 30 (1): 1–45

  • Garnsey, P. (2007), Thinking about Property: From Antiquity to the Age of Revolution. Cambridge

  • Gibson, B. and Harrison, T. (eds) (2013), Polybius and His World: Essays in Memory of F. W. Walbank. Oxford

  • Hahm, D. (1995), ‘Polybius’ applied political theory’, in Laks and Schofield (1995), 7–47

  • Hammer, D. (2015), A Companion to Greek Democracy and the Roman Republic. Malden and Oxford

  • Kapust, D. (2004), ‘Skinner, Pettit and Livy: the conflict of the orders and the ambiguity of republican liberty’, History of Political Thought 25 (3): 377–401

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Kapust, D. (2008), ‘On the ancient uses of political fear and its modern implications’, Journal of the History of Ideas 69 (3): 353–73

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Kaster, R. (2005), Emotion, Restraint and Community in Ancient Rome. Oxford

  • Laks, A. and Schofield, M. (eds) (1995) Justice and Generosity: Studies in Hellenistic Social and Political Philosophy. Cambridge

  • Lintott, A. W. (1972), ‘Provocatio: from the struggle of the orders to the principate’, ANRW I.2: 226–67

  • Lintott, A. W. (1997), ‘The theory of the mixed constitution at Rome’, in Barnes and Griffin (1997), 70–85

  • Lintott, A. W. (1999), The Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford

  • Markell, P. (2008), ‘The insufficiency of non-domination’, Political Theory 36 (1): 9–36

  • McGing, B. (2010), Polybius’ Histories. Oxford

  • Millar, F. (1998), The Crowd in Rome in the Late Republic. Ann Arbor

  • Moore, J. M. (tr.) (1986), Aristotle and Xenophon on Democracy and Oligarchy. Paperback edn, forward by K. A. Raaflaub. Berkeley

  • Mouritsen, H. (2017), Politics in the Roman Republic. Cambridge

  • Muntz, C. E. (2011), ‘The sources of Diodorus Siculus, book 1’, CQ 61 (2): 574–94

  • Muntz, C. E. (2017), Diodorus Siculus and the World of the Late Roman Republic. Oxford

  • Ober, J. (1989), Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: Rhetoric, Ideology, and the Power of the People. Princeton

  • Ober, J. (1993), ‘Thucydides’ criticism of democratic knowledge’, in Rosen and Farrell (1993), 81–98

  • Ober, J. (1996), The Athenian Revolution: Essays on Ancient Greek Democracy and Political Theory. Princeton

  • Ober, J. (1998), Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule. Princeton

  • Oldfather, C. H. (tr.) (1933) Diodorus Siculus: Library of History, Volume I, Books 1–2.34. Cambridge MA

  • Pettit, P. (1997), Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government. Oxford

  • Powell, J. G. F. (ed.) (1995) Cicero the Philosopher: 12 Papers. Oxford

  • Powell, J. G. F. (ed.) (2006) M. Tulli Ciceronis, De re publica, De legibus, Cato Maior de senectute, Laelius De amicitia. Oxford

  • Raaflaub, K. (2005), ‘From protection and defense to offense and participation: stages in the conflict of the orders’, in Raaflaub (2005), 185–222

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Raaflaub, K. (ed.) (2005), Social Struggles in Archaic Rome: New Perspectives on the Conflict of the Orders. Second edn. Malden and London

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Rood, T. (2004), ‘Xenophon and Diodorus: continuing Thucydides’, in Tuplin (2004), 341–95

  • Rosen, R. and Farrell, J. (eds) (1993), Nomodeiktes: Greek Studies in Honor of Martin Ostwald. Ann Arbor

  • Sacks, K. (1990), Diodorus Siculus and the First Century. Princeton

  • Schmitz, T. A. (2012), ‘The image of Athens in Diodorus Siculus’, in Schmitz and Wiater (2012), 235–51

  • Schmitz, T. A. and Wiater, N. (eds) (2012), The Struggle for Identity: Greeks and Their Past in the First Century BCE. Stuttgart

  • Schofield, M. (1995), ‘Cicero’s Definition of Res Publica’, in Powell (1995), 63–83

  • Schofield M. (1999), ‘Social and political thought’, in Algra, Barnes, Mansfeld, and Schofield (1999), 739–70

  • Schofield, M. (2006), Plato: Political Philosophy. Oxford

  • Schofield, M. (2015), ‘Liberty, equality, and authority: a political discourse in the later Roman republic’, in Hammer (2015), 113–27

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Seager, R. (2013), ‘Polybius’ distortions of the Roman ‘constitution’: a simpl(istic) explanation’, in Gibson and Harrison (2013), 247–54

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Sheppard, A. (2013), Ancient Approaches to Plato’s Republic. BICS Supplement 117. London

  • Skinner, Q. (1998), Liberty before Liberalism. Cambridge

  • Skinner, Q. (2002), ‘A third concept of liberty’, Proceedings of the British Academy 117: 237–68

  • Smith, M. F. (ed.) (2001), Lucretius: On the Nature of Things. Indianapolis

  • Smith, S. (2007), Greek Identity and the Athenian Past in Chariton: The Romance of Empire. Gronigen

  • Sommer, M. (2013), ‘Scipio Aemilianus, Polybius, and the quest for friendship in second-century Rome’, in Gibson and Harrison (2013), 307–18

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Stem, R. (2012), The Political Biographies of Cornelius Nepos. Michigan

  • Stone, I. F. (1988), The Trial of Socrates. New York

  • Straumann, B. (2016), Crisis and Constitutionalism: Roman Political Thought from the Fall of the Republic to the Age of Revolution. Oxford

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Strauss, L. (1968), Liberalism Ancient and Modern. New York

  • Tuplin, C. (ed.) (2004), Xenophon and his World: Papers from a Conference Held in Liverpool in July 1999. Stuttgart

  • Verdegem, S. (2010), Plutarch’s Life of Alcibiades: Story, Text and Moralism. Leuven

  • Walbank, F. W. (1957), Historical Commentary on Polybius. Vol. 1. Oxford

  • Walbank, F. W. (2002), Polybius, Rome, and the Hellenistic World: Essays and Reflections. Cambridge

  • Walbank, F. W. and Scott-Kilvert, I. (eds) (1979), Polybius: The Rise of the Roman Empire. New York

  • Zetzel, J. E. G. (ed.) (1995), Cicero, De Re Publica: Selections. Cambridge

Metrics

All Time Past 365 days Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 86 86 8
Full Text Views 2 2 0
PDF Views & Downloads 3 3 0