Political Theory: Rule and Be Ruled

Prologue

 

On and off, I have spent decades studying Greek history. I am not so sure, however, that I fully understand what made the ancient Greeks so original and, at times, so self-destructive. Greatness, however, is easier to explain than the temptation to discord and civil wars.

As early as in the Bronze Age of about 3,000 years BCE, the Greeks achieved remarkable advancements in sanitation, way of life on mountainous land and the sea in the Aegean and Mediterranean. Struggling in the seas made them self-reliant, courageous and inventive. They had to read the constellations and the stars. By the Classical Age of the 8th century BCE and after, they recited Homer in festivals and studied Homer in schools. Homer taught them mythology, ancient history, poetry, and polytheistic religion. At the same time, the Greeks had invented and employed scientific medicine, gorgeous architecture and beautiful art. For example, sixth century BCE philosopher Pythagoras said animals are sacred and spoke of the music of the spheres (stars) and harmony in nature and the Cosmos. In fifth century BCE, the father of scientific medicine, Hippocrates, explained that “The seasons have different effects on human health and the sustainability of cities. So do warm and cold winds and the nature of waters” (Airs, Waters, Places 1-6). Two centuries later, during the third century BCE, the medical doctor Herophilos, warns that, “In the absence of health, all is lost: wisdom takes a vacation, science becomes obscure, strength is problematic, wealth is useless, and reasoning impossible.”[1]

Moreover, in the fourth century BCE, Aristotle and Alexander the Great expanded the frontiers of knowledge and empire to the then known world. The Athenians in the fifth century BCE built the Parthenon. And in the second century BCE, Greek scientists headed by the famous astronomer Hipparchos in the island of Rhodes, home of the god Sun Helios, constructed the second Parthenon of science and technology: the Antikythera astronomical computer of genius.

I am Greek, thus my life pleasures and disappointments fit my limited effort to decode the genius of my ancestors. I don’t pretend I am entirely objective in my study and interpretation of Greek history.

Homer, Aristotle and Alexander

Homer, Aristotle and Alexander the Great are more than dead white males who left a powerful legacy for their descendants – and the world. To me, they are brothers who advanced the cause of freedom, science and civilization for the Greeks and humanity. They lived at times when the Greeks were advancing crafts, science and civilization. They knew they were Greeks, speaking the same language. They had institutions that kept them together: Eusebeia / piety for the gods, for example, was a common powerful sentiment and celebration for the many gods they thought helped them live a good life – in freedom.

The Greeks made their gods like themselves. They game them Greek names, and thought of them good, beautiful, perfect and immortal. They honored them in the altars with animal sacrifices, gorgeous temples, and celebrations like the Olympics and other Panhellenic games.

Apollo, son of Zeus, god of light, music and prophesy, had his Oracle at Delphi where people from all over Greece and, sometimes, Asia visited the Oracle and asked a question, which Pythia, priestess of Apollo, answered.

Origins of Athenian democracy

The Athenians built the Parthenon to honor Athena, protector of their city and daughter of Zeus and Metis, goddess of intelligence.

Aeschylos, the great tragic poet of the fifth century BCE, tells us that Athena assisted the Athenians in the creation of Areios Pagos, a superior court in defense of justice and democracy. Moreover, Athena convinced the Furies, goddesses revenging family crimes, to abandon their hounding of Orestes, son of Agamemnon for killing his mother Clytemnestra who had murdered Agamemnon. Instead, Athena was successful in making the Furies to embrace and defend Athens. Thus, democracy, intelligence and freedom, all virtues of Athena, were incorporated in Athenian democracy, which Athena gifted to Athens. In his play Eumenides, Aeschylos was explicit, saying Athena introduced democracy to the Athenians, urging them (1) to defend freedom (die on their feet rather than living on their knees); (2) respecting parents and foreigners; (3) worship the mean; (4) revere traditions; (5) suffer into truth; (6) appreciate that the rich goods of life come from the black Earth; (7) avoid war (the blood of slaughter wants more blood); (8) never fight civil wars (Aeschylos, The Eumenides 681-1047).

Athens would even pay citizens to attend theater whose plays explored dramatic stories from the time of the heroes and Homer. The idea was education in democracy, patriotism, peace, tragedy, and the beautiful and virtuous.

The Greeks, especially the Spartans / Lacedaemonians and Athenians, were aware of the Persian danger. They saw the Persian invasion of Hellas as existential threat. They formed the Hellenic League and took an oath to fight the Persians to the last man: freedom or death. Athens had a formidable fleet of triremes and Sparta an unbeatable hoplite force. Working together, and with troops from other Greek states, they defeated the much larger Persian fleet in the narrow straits of Salamis in 480 BCE. A year later, in 479 BCE, the Greeks defeated a large Persian land force at Plataea. The Persian threat was dealt a decisive blow.

The political theory explaining and justifying democracy is extremely ancient. Aeschylos fought the Persian invaders in the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE. He did not invent Athena. Athena was also a war goddess that defended Athens. Aeschylos gave voice to Athena urging Athenians to avoid anarchy and tyranny and, above all, civil war. Always select and worship the mean, Aeschylos said. This was political theory from the mouth of a very powerful goddess.

Meaning of democracy

Two politicians, Solon and Kleisthenes, secured democracy for Athens. Solon, Athenian legislator, 638-558 BCE, saved Athens from civil war; he abolished slavery, favored Eunomia (dominance of good laws) and Seisachtheia (shaking off of burdens of political inequality). Kleisthenes was another Athenian legislator, 565-500 BCE. More than Solon, he moved the Athenian constitution (politeia) towards democracy with court reforms and citizens selected by lot running and serving their government, including the practice of ostracism for protecting the polis from potential tyrants.

Democracy comes from demos (people) and kratos (power). Mixing these two concepts and realities you overthrow government by the few (oligarchy), the rich (plutocracy) and absolute government by one (monarchy and tyranny). To contain such revolution, all Athenian citizens (free adult men) had to be involved. You could not say you minded your own business. You participated or you paid fines and possibly you found yourself exiled or marked by red paint. Every year 500 citizens were selected at random in the Council of 500 to serve the polis for a year. They administered the state and proposed laws. Each law had to be voted up or down by the Ecclesia, citizen assembly of all adult male Athenians.

The average Athenian male citizen learned to govern and be governed. Athenian juries were large and complex organizations. They were immune to corruption. It was impossible to predict who would be a juror in a forthcoming trial. Athenians could seek justice in courts, courts of appeal, and district courts. There were no judges or lawyers in a trial. The citizen who filed a suit against another citizen would have to explain to usually large number of jurors why he sought the punishment of another citizen. Hired speech writers could embellish the presentations of prosecutors and defendants. Athenians served as jurors and magistrates. They slowly evolved to accommodate a variety of constitutions, which enlarged the rights and obligations of citizens.

Survival of democracy

But Athens, polis of mortals, like Sparta, Argos, Corinth and Thebes and other poleis (city-states), did not always follow what was best for most Athenians. Tyranny, civil war and conflict and wars among the city-states introduced corruption, decline and fall to enemies like the Romans. Limited freedom survived in the informal assemblies of the villages and cities. Greece was more than a commonwealth of several states all over the Mediterranean, Euxeinos Pontos / Welcoming Sea / Black Sea, Western Europe and north Africa. Greeks were united by language and polytheism. Their country was primarily a commonwealth of states with millennial traditions of being a nation (έθνος) with popular assemblies and democracy. These institutions coexisted with formal monarchies, oligarchies, and tyrannies and, sometimes, formal democracy.

Bronze Age and after

The Bronze Age epics of Apollonios Rhodios, Argonautica, and Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, testify to the national and democratic origins and traditions of the ancient Greeks.

The Bronze Age covers 2,000 years between 3,000 and 1,000 years BCE. The Bronze Age invented and sowed crafts, especially metallurgy, one and two story houses served by running drinking water, cobblestone streets, sanitation, shipbuilding, exploration of the Mediterranean, architecture, science, and civilization among Greeks everywhere.

Classical Age Greeks, 8th – 4th centuries BCE, relied on this Bronze Age heritage of science and civilization to build their own world, more elaborate, covering the Mediterranean with cities, and just as beautiful, less monarchical and more democratic but equally competitive and polemical.

The Peloponnesian War, 431 – 404 BCE, almost ruined the edifice of beautiful art, architecture, democracy, science and civilization of ancient Greece. Plato and Aristotle, main voices of philosophy, science and political theory, wrote, taught and influenced the Greeks of their time, the fourth century BCE. They followed Homer and Aeschylos telling their students to use reason, patriotism, and moderation (σοφρωσύνη) to resolve problems among Greeks and especially avoid civil war. And the rhetorician Isocrates, 436-338 BCE, did the same thing. He spoke eloquently on the primacy of Athens and Hellas. He could see the rise of Macedon in north Greece would threaten Athens. In his “Panegyric” speech, he boosted the egos of his fellow Athenians. He bragged that Athens was known for its moderation and civilization. It had invented a new definition of what made Greeks really Greeks. He said Athenian students were teachers to others. And a Greek was not necessarily one of the same genetic origins with Athenians but one who was immersed in things of the mind. Those marked by thought and intelligence were Greeks. That is, Greeks were primarily people who were intimately involved with Athenian education, science and citizenship and common Hellenic culture (Panegyrikos 50).

After the Peloponnesian War

However, post-Peloponnesian War Greece lived the times of trouble. It suffered tremendously during the civil war. Philosophers did well reminding Greeks of their history and legacy of civilization, but the politics of competition and war remained and thrived. Fortunately, in late fourth century BCE, another opportunity saved the Greeks from collapse. That opportunity opened with the rise to Greek and international power of the Macedonian prince Alexander. His father, King Philip II, asked Aristotle to educate his teenage son. Aristotle taught Alexander history, philosophy, science, poetry and foreign affairs. He urged Alexander to unite the Greeks and bring the Persian danger to an end. Alexander did both. He united the Greeks and conquered the vast Persian empire.

Alexander built 70 Greek cities in Asia and Alexandria in Egypt. He endowed those cities with libraries, schools, theaters and athletic stadia, where both Greeks and non-Greeks could study and become citizens of Alexander’s ecumene. Alexandria in Egypt became the capital of this metropolis of science and civilization. The second century BCE Antikythera Mechanism, the astronomical computer of heavens and Earth, was a byproduct of the pharos / lighthouse of knowledge of Alexandria.

Despite its global influence, the dream of Alexander – and Greek civilization –eventually fell apart. The conflict among Greeks brought the end of their political independence. The Romans captured Greece and the Greek empire of Alexander during the second and first centuries BCE. They converted Hellas to Rome, that is, a temporary empire of imperial power built over the ruins and impoverishment of the Greek ideals of democracy, science and freedom.

Rule and be ruled

As for political theory, Aristotle’s “rule and be ruled,” prevailed. But political theory is not mathematics. Thinkers and scholars and politicians build their own castles. We inherited the works of Homer, Herodotos, Thucydides, the tragic poets, and Aristophanes. Foremost we have the Politics and Constitution of Athens by Aristotle. Add to the political theories of these thinkers the theories of other Greek scholars and you have the makings of a rudimentary outline of what the ancient Greeks thought important in governing themselves – political theory — under the rule of law.[2] It speaks to us eloquently to this very day. It spoke to the Europeans for a very long time.

A little over a century ago, in 1920, John Burnet, a British scholar raised the ancient Greeks to the pinnacle of intelligence and influence. He said: “Science is thinking about the world in a Greek way. That is why science has never existed except among peoples who have come under the influence of Greece” (Early Greek Philosophy, 3rd ed., 1920) v.

 

NOTES

1. Herophilos, Regimen in Sextus Empiricus, Against the Mathematicians 9.50. ↑
2. For example: Demosthenes (A Call to Arms: The Third Philippic), Diodoros (The Corinthian Congress: The End of Greek Independence), Plutarch (1. On the Fortune of Alexander and 2. An Athenian Statesman and Politician: Aristides the Just), Polybios (1. A Hellenic Federal Experiment: The Achaean League 2. Defects of the Spartan Constitution and 3. Music as a Civilizing Force: The Case of the Arcadians), and Pausanias (For the Greater Glory of Zeus: The Ancient Olympics). ↑

*Evaggelos Vallianatos, Ph.D., studied history and biology at the University of Illinois; earned his Ph.D. in Greek and European history at the University of Wisconsin; did postdoctoral studies in the history of science at Harvard. He worked on Capitol Hill and the US EPA; taught at several universities and authored several books, including The Antikythera Mechanism: The Story Behind the Genius of the Greek Computer and its Demise. He is the author of Freedom: Clear Thinking and Inspiration from 5,000 Years of Greek History (Universal Publishers, 2025).

 

Source: https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/08/political-theory-rule-and-be-ruled/