The 'Snap Vote' of 462/1 BCE: A Note on the History of the Athenian Democracy

TY - JOUR

T1 - The 'Snap Vote' of 462/1 BCE

T2 - A Note on the History of the Athenian Democracy

AU - Thomsen, Christian Ammitzbøll

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - Two events in Athenian history are usually associated with the year 462/r BCE. One was a military expedition to the Peloponnese to help the Spartans overcome a helot rebellion, the other the so-called 'Reforms of Ephialtes'. According to older scholarship the two were in fact related and orthodoxy still holds that the absence of 4,000 politically conservative hoplites under the leadership of Kimon paved the way for radical democratic reform - championed by Ephialtes and voted through the Athenian assembly in a 'snap vote' by the mass of democratic rowers who remained in the city. This note re-examines the ancient evidence for both events and especially for their timing, and questions the orthodoxy and by extension assumptions about the relationship between war and politics in ancient Athens.

AB - Two events in Athenian history are usually associated with the year 462/r BCE. One was a military expedition to the Peloponnese to help the Spartans overcome a helot rebellion, the other the so-called 'Reforms of Ephialtes'. According to older scholarship the two were in fact related and orthodoxy still holds that the absence of 4,000 politically conservative hoplites under the leadership of Kimon paved the way for radical democratic reform - championed by Ephialtes and voted through the Athenian assembly in a 'snap vote' by the mass of democratic rowers who remained in the city. This note re-examines the ancient evidence for both events and especially for their timing, and questions the orthodoxy and by extension assumptions about the relationship between war and politics in ancient Athens.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - History

KW - Athenian democracy

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0106-5815

VL - 64

SP - 81

EP - 93

JO - Classica et Mediaevalia

JF - Classica et Mediaevalia

ER -