Creating a Constitution: Law, Democracy, and Growth in Ancient Athens 9780691198712

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Cr e at i ng a Const i t u t ion

Creating a Constitution L aw, De mocr ac y, a n d Grow t h i n A NCI E N T At h e ns

F e de r ic a C a rug at i

Pr i nceton U n i v e r sit y Pr e ss Pr i nceton & Ox for d

Copyright © 2019 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR press.princeton.edu All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Control Number 2019931720 ISBN 978-­0-­691-­19563-­6 British Library Cataloging-­in-­Publication Data is available Editorial: Rob Tempio and Matt Rohal Production Editorial: Jill Harris Jacket Design: Pamela L. Schnitter Production: Merli Guerra Publicity: Alyssa Sanford and Amy Stewart Copyeditor: Brittany Micka-­Foos Jacket image: The fragmentary fourth roll containing the Constitution of the Athenians. Papyrus 131, f 5v. Egypt (near Hermopolis), ca. 100 AD. Copyright © The British Library Board This book has been composed in Arno Printed on acid-­free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

C on t e n t s

List of Figures  ix Acknowledgments  xi Introduction I.1. Existing Accounts I.2. Constitution Building in Ancient Athens I.3. Methodology I.4. Alternative Explanations I.5. Contribution I.6. Outline of the Book

1 3 7 9 12 16 18

1 Athens before the Crisis 1.1. Laws and Lawgivers: Athens’ Archaic Development 1.1.a. Draco 1.1.b. Solon 1.1.c. Cleisthenes 1.2. Democracy in Fifth-­Century Athens 1.2.a. The Council of Five Hundred 1.2.b. The Assembly 1.2.c. The Courts 1.2.d. The Magistrates 1.3. Democracy and Empire 1.4. Pitfalls of Democracy

21 23 23 24 26 27 27 28 29 30 30 33

2 Constitution and Consensus 2.1. A New Reading of the Ancient Sources 2.2. The Patrios Politeia Consensus

38 41 44

v

vi  Con t e n ts

2.2.a. The Four Hundred (411–­410) 2.2.b. The Five Thousand (410–­409) 2.2.c. The First Restored Democracy (409–­404) 2.2.d. The Thirty (404–­403) 2.3. The Athenian Self-­Enforcing Constitution 2.3.a. Limits 2.3.b. Incentives 2.3.c. Enforcement Mechanisms 2.4. Conclusion

46 51 53 56 62 64 66 69 71

3 Stability and Innovation in Athenian Policy 3.1. Actors and Preferences 3.1.a. Was Litigation an Exclusively Elite Domain? 3.1.b. Who Were the Jurors? 3.1.c. Social Networks and Plural Preferences 3.2. Modeling Law-­Court Interactions 3.2.a. The Median Voter Theorem 3.2.b. Litigants’ Preferences: Honor vs. Policy 3.2.c. Costs 3.3. Decision-­Making in the Courts 3.3.a. The Legislative Process 3.3.b. A Hypothetical Case: Leo v. Ernie 3.3.c. Assumptions 3.3.d. The Model 3.3.e. Implications 3.4. Stability and Innovation between Solon and the Median Juror 3.5. Conclusion

75 81 82 84 87 89 90 90 92 93 93 95 97 98 101 104 107

4 The Institutional Foundations of Prosperity 4.1. After the Civil War 4.1.a. Fiscal Policy Reforms 4.1.b. Athenian Foreign Policy: Rent Extraction or Market Incentives? 4.1.c. Credible Commitment: The Issue of Noncitizens

108 115 116 117 120

Con t e n ts 

vii

4.2. After the Social War (357–­355) 4.2.a. Fiscal Policy between the Social War and Chaeronea 4.2.b. The Laurion Silver Mines 4.2.c. The Harbor of Piraeus 4.3. After Chaeronea (338) 4.3.a. The Laurion Mines and Public and Sacred Lands 4.3.b. The Contribution of the Elite 4.3.c. The Contribution of Piraeus 4.4. Conclusion

123 125 127 130 133 135 136 137 139

5 The Paths Not Taken 5.1. Prosperity and Civil Conflict: A Comparative Study 5.1.a. Syracuse (Fifth–­Fourth Centuries) 5.1.b. Rome (First Century) 5.1.c. Conclusion 5.2. Resources, Regime, and Growth: Athens and Piraeus 5.2.a. Piraeus’ Geography 5.2.b. Piraeus’ History 5.2.c. Is the Oligarchic Ship Seaworthy? 5.2.d. Conclusion

140 141 143 149 154 155 160 163 165 169

Conclusion

173

Appendix A. Piraeus’ Geography A .1. Aegean Navigation A .2. Piraeus’ Rivals A.2.a. Aegina A.2.b. Corinth A.2.c. Megara A .3. Piraeus’ Late Development

179 179 182 183 183 184 185

Appendix B. Piraeus’ History B.1. The Classical Period B.1.a. Population B.1.b. Security

187 188 188 193

viii  Con t e n ts

B.1.c. Capacity B.1.d. Volume of Trade B.1.e. Conclusion B.2. The Hellenistic and Roman Periods B.3. The Byzantine and Ottoman Periods B.4. The Period of Greek Independence Bibliography  205 Index  231

194 196 198 199 202 203

F ig u r e s



1.1. Athens’ institutions 27 2.1. Political instability in Athens (413–­403) 39 3.1. Leo’s utility function U(x) 99 3.2. Probability density function f(x) 99 3.3. L*