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Cleisthenes › Who Was
Definition and Origins
Cleisthenes (b. late 570s BCE) was an Athenian statesman who famously reformed the political structure and processes of Athens at the end of the 6th century BCE and, thereby, greatly increased the influence of ordinary citizens on everyday politics. Accordingly, he is credited with creating a celebrated system of democracy, which, over the following decades, would become ever more direct so that all citizens could actively and directly participate in government.
EARLY LIFE
Cleisthenes (also Kleisthenes) was born into the aristocratic Alcmaeonid family of Athens sometime in the late 570s BCE. His father was Megacles, himself a powerful figure in Athenian politics, and his mother, Agariste, was the daughter of Cleisthenes, the tyrant of Sicyon, a city west of Corinth. Cleisthenes first came to political prominence when he was made archon, a high administrative official, in 525 BCE during the reign of the tyrant Hippias. However, when the Alcmaeonid family fell out of favour with the ruling regime Cleisthenes went into exile.
CLEISTHENES VS. ISAGORAS
Whilst in exile, Cleisthenes, claiming support from the sacred oracle at Delphi, convinced Athens' old rival Sparta to remove Hippias. Cleisthenes then returned to Athens and vied for power with his great rival, Isagoras. The latter gained political ground when he was made archon in 508 BCE, but Cleisthenes fought back by proposing a programme of political reforms which would win him popular support amongst the citizenry of Athens. Seeing the danger of this, Isagoras appealed to his ally, the Spartan king Cleomenes, to intervene and remove his rival. The Spartans did send a small force to lay siege to Athens, and Cleisthenes prudently left the city. The Spartans were rebuffed, though, by popular resistance and, when Isagoras and the Spartans withdrew, Cleisthenes was able to return to his home city. There was now no obstacle to Cleisthenes' proposed reforms.
TRADITIONAL ATHENIAN CLASSIFICATIONS & KIN GROUPS SUCH AS THE FOUR IONIAN TRIBES WERE REPLACED IN SIGNIFICANCE BY A WHOLE NEW SYSTEM.
CLEISTHENES' DEMOCRATIC REFORMS
The most important element of Cleisthenes' reforms c. 508 BCE was to reorganize the citizen body of Athens. Traditional classifications and kin groups such as the four Ionian tribes were replaced in significance by a new classification where each member of the citizen body ( demos ) was to belong to one of 139 local units or demoi ( demes ). Demes, distributed all over Attica, then belonged to one of 30 trittyes, which, in turn, belonged to one of 10 tribes or phylai. Further, the three trittyeswhich made up a single tribe each had to come from one of three different areas of territorial classification (Coast, Inland, and City) so that it now became much less likely that tribes would act based on geographical and family loyalties.
All political and military groupings would now be based on these new divisions. Any male who registered with their demeautomatically became a citizen and so could participate in the new council of 500, the boule, where everyone had an equal right to speak. Cleisthenes' main motivation in these reforms was probably to reduce the influence of traditional groups and allow himself and the Alcmaeonids more freedom of political maneuver in a more stable political system. He had realized that stability would only come if the political base was broadened to include more citizens and as Herodotus stated, "By adding the people to his side, he gained the upper hand by far over his political opponents (5.69)."
For the ordinary citizens (that is males only) the reforms would allow them to, at least in theory, access institutions and power previously reserved for the traditional aristocratic families. In this sense, and although perhaps not fully realized yet in practice, Cleisthenes established democracy in Athens and prepared the way for further reforms over the next decades which would create a fully and direct democratic system of government in which all citizens could participate. Solon had made all citizens equal before the law and reduced the influence of the landed Athenian aristocracy in the previous century, but in Classical Athens it was Cleisthenes who was credited with being the true founding father of Athenian democracy.
Another reform which is highly likely to have been instigated by Cleisthenes was the political procedure of ostracism whereby the citizen body could vote in a public assembly to exile any person thought to be dangerous or too powerful for the city's welfare. Although not used that often over the next century, the process, and especially the threat of it, was, nevertheless, the greatest example of how ordinary citizens could directly curtail the career of over-ambitious, corrupt, or simply inept politicians.Nothing, unfortunately, is recorded of Cleisthenes' later life after his reforms but they, at least, have ensured his lasting reputation as one of the earliest rulers to promote democracy and the ideal that government should rest with the many rather than the few.
Plautus › Who Was
Definition and Origins
Titus Maccius Plautus, better known simply as Plautus (actually a nickname meaning 'flatfoot'), was, between c. 205 and 184 BCE, a Roman writer of comedy plays, specifically the fabulae palliatae, which had a Greek -themed storyline. His plays are the earliest complete surviving works from Latin theatre and they are noted for adding even more outrageous comedy to traditional comic plays. Plautus is also celebrated as a developer of characterisation and a master of verbal acrobatics. Finally, the plays are a rich and valuable source of information regarding contemporary Roman society.
BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Details of Plautus' life are sketchy and unreliable; even his name may be simply a collection of nicknames attributed to a particular playwright. Plautus is said to have been born in Sarsina, Umbria. Ancient sources, now largely discredited as pure invention, tell of his early career in theatre when he worked as a stagehand, his bankruptcy from spurious business ventures, and his time working in a mill to make ends meet.
PLAUTUS' COMPLETE WORKS
Twenty complete plays by Plautus survive along with around 100 lines of Vidularia (The Suitcase) and fragments from several others. This body of work was first attributed to Plautus by the 1st century BCE Roman scholar Varro and the titles are:
Early works:
- Cistellaria (The Casket Comedy)
- Miles Gloriosus (The Swaggering Soldier)
- Stichus (200 BCE)
- Pseudolus (191 BCE)
Later works:
- Bacchides (The Bacchis Sisters)
- Casina
- Persa (The Persian)
- Trinummus (Threepence)
- Truculentus (The Ferocious Fellow)
Date/period unknown:
- Amphitruo
- Asinaria (The Comedy of Asses)
- Aulularia (The Pot of Gold )
- Captivi (The Prisoners)
- Curculio (The Weevil)
- Epidicus
- Menaechmi (The Menaechmus Brothers)
- Mercator (The Businessman)
- Mostellaria (The Haunted House)
- Poenulus (The Punic Chappie)
- Rudens (The Rope)
INFLUENCES & STYLE
These works are adaptations of 4th century BCE Greek New Comedy (and perhaps also Middle Comedy) plays with some Latin Comedy additions such as mime and bawdy jokes. The earlier Greek plays already had stock characters and Plautus freely expanded the roles of such staple characters as the cunning slave, the cook, and the parasite, giving them memorable character names into the bargain – for example, Chrysalus (Goldfinger) from Bacchides.
PLAUTUS FREQUENTLY USES WORDPLAY, ALLITERATION AND PUNS TO DELIVER A SERIES OF DEVASTATING LINGUISTICAL ACROBATICS.
The plots of Plautus' plays are also stretched to implausibility so as to heighten their comedy. Confusions of identity and misunderstandings between characters are frequently employed for comedic purposes. Many plays are set in a world which is reversed from the norm, as in the Roman Saturnalia festival where, for a brief time, slaves became masters and vice-versa.Hence, in Plautus' plays, very often, the cunning slave character comes to the aid of a young lover and both get the better of the old master. In addition, the plays often have an ambiguous morality where lovers are unsuitably matched and such characters as prostitutes are not negatively portrayed.
Plautus employs a full range of language from colloquial phrases to technical terms and he frequently uses wordplay, alliteration and puns to deliver a series of devastating linguistical acrobatics. The plays have a great variety of both metre and music too, especially in the cantica segments – operatic arias and duets. Plautus also frequently reminds the audience that they are watching a play (metatheatre) to squeeze even more comedy from his scenes, using such tricks as signalling to the audience exactly how the play is progressing and reminding them that the story is set far away in Greece.
Theatre Mask Mosaic
PLAUTUS' LEGACY
Plautus' plays continued to be popular after his death and they were performed in Rome for another century or so. His works were also read, studied, and copied for centuries after that. The oldest manuscript of a Plautus play dates back to the 6th century CE and the reappearance of previously lost manuscripts made Plautus once more popular during the Renaissance.The plays were performed in theatres again and, along with Terence, Plautus is credited with influencing the evolution of European comic theatre and inspiring such playwrights as Shakespeare and Molière with his rich characterisations. For example, the former writer's Comedy of Errors shares many plot and character details with Plautus' Menaechmi.
Below is a selection of extracts from Plautus' plays:
Peniculus: Gods confound who first invented public meetings, that device for wasting the time of people who have no time to waste. There ought to be a corps of idle men enrolled for that sort of business. ( The Menaechmus Brothers, lines 420-472)
Pseudolus: The best laid plans of a hundred skilled men can be knocked sideways by one single goddess, the Lady Luck. It's a fact; it's only being on good terms with Dame Fortune that makes a man successful and gives him the reputation of being a clever fellow. ( Pseudolus, lines 641-693)
Euclio: The first thing that occurs to me, Megadorus, is that you are a rich man, a man of influence, and I'm a poor man, poorest of the poor. And the second thing that occurs to me is that for me to make you my son-in-law would be like yoking an ox with an ass; you'd be the ox and I'd be the ass. Unable to pull my share of the load, I, the ass, would be left sprawling in the mud, and you, the ox, would take no more notice of me than if I had never been born. I should be out of your class, and my class would disown me; if there were a question of divorce or anything like that, my footing in either stable would be very – unstable. The asses would be at me with their teeth, and the bulls with their horns. It's asking for trouble for an ass to promote himself to the bull-pen. ( The Pot of Gold, lines 213-256)
Playwrights no longer use the penTo improve the minds of decent men.If we have pleased, not wearied you,If you think virtue worth reward,Kind friends, you all know what to do…Just let us know it – and applaud.( The Prisoners, epilogue)
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