1996 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Research into the Athenian Oligarchs in the Late Fifth Century B.C.
| Project/Area Number |
06610369
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
History of Europe and America
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| Research Institution | University of East Asia |
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Principal Investigator |
HORII Kenichi University of East Asia Faculty of Design Assistant Professor, デザイン学部, 助教授 (20190233)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1994 – 1996
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| Keywords | Ancient Greece / Atheus / democracy / oligarch |
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| Research Abstract |
I study the matters related to the oligarchic revolutions of 411 and 404 B.C.in my research. Some contradictions between the descriptions of Thucydies' History and Aristotle's Athenaion Politeia are reasonably dissolved. The two constitutional drafts of Arist., Ath. Pol., 30-31, whose many contradictions are to be dissolved, are properly interpretable. I search the Athenian society of classical democracy and the movements and thoughts of some political groups just before the revolution during the Peloponnesian War for the reasons why the oligarchic revolution of 411 B.C.occurred. In view of transformation from a democrat into a oligarch of the key man of the event, Peisandros, one can not say that the only oligarchic thought caused the political change. The Athenian democracy with payment for officials was attacked by the worse situation of war and the thereby collapse of the state's finance, and the costly political system fell into critical stage. So the rich, the oligarchs and the practical handlers pressed the people to concede to their demands of their concentrated political power and the abolition of state payment. I concider the political attitude of the key man in my research, Theramenes, in review of the trend in the punishment of oligarchs of the Four Hundred. His political attitude was highly evaluated by Aristotle of the later fourth century B.C.It is a reflection of what the legal reforms of 403 B.C.effected that the fourth century Athenians thought that the democracy should function by following the traditional laws of Solon. And it is reasonable that the purpose of the proposal of Cleitophon, a Theramenean, is to claim for observing the traditional laws. But its proposal was neglected by the oligarchs and they brought on the oligarchic revolution at 411 B.C.
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