However, in the12nd century BC, a nomadic people called Dorians invaded from the north, everything they passed was burned, the achievements of Aegean civilization were swept away, and the historical wheel of ancient Greece returned to the end of primitive society. Greece from 1 1 century to the 9th century BC was a dark age after the great robbery. At that time, the Greeks had no writing, no cities, and the society was in a state of general poverty. Although the Aegean civilization perished, it had a special influence on the later Greek classical civilization with its special status as the oldest civilization in Europe. For example, the sculpture and painting art of Crete, the religious thoughts and habits of Crete were inherited and accepted by the Greeks, and the gods of Crete, such as Zeus, were inherited by the Greeks.
On the surface, this historical retrogression seems to be a bad thing, and the Greeks who have experienced it have paid a heavy price. But judging from the later historical development of ancient Greece, this is a good thing, because it broke some palace cultural traditions of Aegean civilization and made it possible for the ancient Greeks to create a new civilization on the ruins. Later, the ancient Greek civilization was able to have its own distinctive features and made amazing achievements, largely because of this opportunity from scratch.
In the eighth and sixth centuries BC, the sleeping ancient Greeks woke up, started out of the dark and went to the Mediterranean world. They set off a wave of overseas colonization. Hundreds of city-states have been established on the Greek Peninsula, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea coast, which is an archaic era in Greek history. In this era, the power of military leaders and kings has not been strengthened, but weakened, and eventually most of them have disappeared. The founders of city-states and citizens' collectives gained the highest power, and these city-states played an important role in the historical process of ancient Greek cultural development. The polis is one of the basic characteristics of ancient Greek civilization and plays a special role in the development of the country. City-states usually take a city as the center and combine with the surrounding agricultural areas. The history of ancient Greece is actually the history of the city-state, because more than 90% of the contents of ancient Greek civilization were written by the ancient Greeks during the city-state period.
(Professor Douglas Kelly, Australian National University) "Greek civilization is associated with the Greek city-state. These city-states are adjacent communities. Their existence is largely due to the geographical environment of Greece. The valleys and plains are separated by mountains, where people can form communities. This community makes it possible for them to live a good life, and they can control their own destiny. If they live in a place with a vision larger than the polis, where there are strangers everywhere, the Greeks can't eat it. "
Sparta, the largest country in ancient Greece, covers an area of only over 8,000 square kilometers and has a population of 200,000 to 300,000. Ancient Greece even had a small country with thousands of people, which was not as good as a big village in China. Every city-state in ancient Greece had a collective composed of citizens with full powers, that is, the citizens' assembly. Citizens of the polis enjoy certain rights, but not all residents enjoy these rights.
(Guo Xiaoling, Professor of Peking University History College) "Immigrants and slaves have no political rights, that is, they can't participate in any political activities of the city-state, and they can't vote for the right to be elected. And they don't have all rights, but foreign immigrants with free status have certain economic rights. As for slaves, they don't have any economic, political, ideological and cultural rights, because in the eyes of ancient Greeks, slaves are the property of their masters and tools of speech.
The ancient Greek city-states practiced collective leadership, adopted voting rules and practiced the rule of law. The leaders of ancient Greek city-states lacked the conditions of personal arbitrariness. No matter what kind of political system the city-state implements, it contains elements of democracy or collective leadership, that is, it has three levels of authority: institutionalized permanent citizens' assembly, aristocratic or elected members' Council and specific administrative departments. In the eyes of the ancient Greeks, it was unthinkable that there was no permanent citizens' assembly. Therefore, the most important part of the urban structure in ancient Greece was the place for citizens' assembly and daily activities. Therefore, the architecture of public institutions at all levels is the main embodiment of city-state architecture.
(Professor Douglas Kelly, Australian National University) "Broadly speaking, the Greek city-state or democracy is managed by a citizens' assembly open to all citizens; Or oligarchy, it is exclusively enjoyed by a few people who are distinguished by their ancestry, occupation and wealth. It covers democratic politics, for example, every citizen in Athens is politically equal, and it also includes oligarchy in a broad sense, that is, all citizens who have the ability to participate in the war have political rights, and like Sparta, they are city-states dominated by a handful of special groups. "
The army of the polis is a citizen soldier composed of all citizens. Once in wartime, it disappeared after the war. No professional mercenaries. The armies of Sparta and Athens, the two major city-states in ancient Greece, are outstanding representatives of this system of officers and men.
From 490 BC to 480 BC, the whole of Greece was involved in the war against the Persian Empire. The Battle of Marathon in 490 BC and the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC were the two battles that decided the victory of the war. In these two battles, Lu Haijun, who was mainly composed of poor Greek citizens, played an important role. Athens and Sparta played an important role in the war against Persian invasion. The victory of the war brought unprecedented prosperity to Greece, made brilliant achievements in philosophy, culture and science, and reached the peak of democracy in Athens.
Unlike ancient Egypt, the two river basins and Indian society, there were not many large religious groups with industries in ancient Greek city-states. The religious activities of the ancient Greeks were presided over by elected public officials, and the temples between the city-states were managed by neighboring countries. There is no phenomenon of urban domination and exploitation of the countryside within the city-state, because the city is not the center of the ruler's life, and most citizens of each city-state live in the countryside. They are equal to citizens in the city in rights and do not need to pay taxes to the city.
Democracy is the most far-reaching ancient Greek city-state system. Democracy in ancient Greece was not a perfect political system. It only gives democracy to some citizens in society, but it means violence and oppression to non-citizens and slaves. But compared with other systems in the same period, it is the best system. It created a new model of collective rule in the tyrannical ancient world, and its citizens enjoyed rare political, economic and cultural rights at that time.
The word "democracy" in English evolved from the ancient Greek Vendmocratia, which originally meant that the people held political power. Greek democracy provided a model for modern enlightenment thinkers to formulate an ideal political system. According to the current research, democracy may have been born in Athens at the earliest, and then extended to most city-states in ancient Greece. Democracy in Athens was not built in a day, but the result of the struggle of generations in Athens.
At the beginning of the sixth century BC, the polarization between the rich and the poor in Athens society intensified, endangering the stability of the city-state. Consul Solon carried out reforms, making the citizens' assembly the highest authority of the country, and the people's court as the highest judicial organ, all Greek citizens have the right to participate. Since Solon's reform, Greek history has entered the classical era. At the end of 6th century BC, Cleisthenes reformed again, abolishing the residual privileges of tribal clans and nobles, and democracy in Athens was basically established.
After these reforms, democracy has also undergone a process of constant adjustment and improvement. For example, the rich still had a great advantage in the political life of Athens at first, and some senior public offices were restricted by property qualifications. These problems were not completely solved until the middle of the fifth century BC. All official positions are elected by the people, all state affairs are decided by the citizens' assembly and all judicial power belongs to the people. This realized the ancient Greek idea that the country was ruled by all citizens in turn. The highest authority in Athens is the citizens' assembly, which embodies the principles of fairness and justice.
Guo Xiaoling, a professor at the Peking University Institute of History, said: "Athens holds 40 citizen meetings every year, and the main agenda of the ten citizen meetings is to assess the current public officials. Those who fail can be fired at that time. Therefore, an elected official has to inspect ten times a year, which is the rarest assessment system for public officials in the world. If you don't behave well and citizens think you don't behave well, then you may serve for one month and be dismissed after one month. Moreover, the ancient Greek democracy also had strict regulations on the term of office of officials, that is, there was life tenure. After being elected, each public official can only serve for one year and must be re-elected after one year. If a politician behaves well, he may be elected continuously, but he can only be elected once in a lifetime. In short, it has a very complicated and perfect system, which effectively prevents the phenomenon of abusing power for personal gain. Especially in the fourth century BC, Athens' democracy was mature, and it can be said that corruption of public officials was basically eliminated. "
Even generals who have made great contributions are no exception. The generals of the Marathon, Midias and Perikles, were impeached for corruption and were fined heavily. The justice of Athenians will not get preferential treatment outside the law because of credit and honor. During the Sixth Presidium Meeting, Athens will also add a vote on whether to exile pottery fragments that year. When some citizens may pose an obvious threat to democracy, the presidium will hold a special citizens' meeting. Participants will carve the names of people they think are threats to democracy on the broken pottery pieces and put the pottery pieces into a pottery jar at the venue. If more than half of the votes are in favor, someone can be exiled, and the exile will be exiled abroad for ten years. After ten years, exiles can return to China and restore their citizenship. This is a measure to oppose the enemies of democracy by democratic means. The election of national public officials will be held on an auspicious day after the departure of the Sixth Presidium. Except for senior military posts, hundreds of other official positions were decided by lottery. For example, when the consul was elected, 500 candidates were selected, and a bean was taken out of a clay pot containing black beans and white beans. The first nine people who caught white beans became the highest administrative officials of that year. All citizens, regardless of birth or wealth, are equal before luck or providence. When Congress is not in session, the 500-member committee is always in charge of state affairs. When the ten Presidiums are on duty, they draw lots to elect an executive chairman every day, who is responsible for convening the Council and taking charge of the national seal and the key to the national treasury. In fact, he is the supreme leader of the country. According to the law, each person can only serve as the executive chairman once.
In order to improve the efficiency of the government and avoid making mistakes, Athens stipulated that the age of national public servants should be over 30. In this way, it takes 12 years for Athenians to become full citizens at the age of 18, which is equivalent to that for modern people, a citizen has rich political experience when he is qualified for the position after studying in the whole general education stage. The judges in Athens are also entirely held by citizens themselves. The number of judges in Athens is 6,000, which is also decided by lot. They form a court for every 500 people, and ten courts perform judicial functions every day. During the trial, the speeches of the plaintiff and the defendant were controlled by the water meter, and the person who monitored the water meter was also decided by lot in court. This is a miracle in the history of world justice. Where were those lost times before me? Behind me, where is the next generation? Because all the people sitting in the court at that time were amateur judges, most of whom were manual workers such as plowmen, craftsmen and sailors, but they were able to effectively exercise their judicial functions. While developing democracy, Athens continued to expand outward, which was opposed by Sparta and other city-states characterized by oligarchy.
Sparta practiced another system, in which all citizens lived and fought collectively, exploited and oppressed heroes who were slaves of the country, and opposed material enjoyment, cultural entertainment and commodity trade. Sparta, with its powerful army, had hegemony in the Peloponnesian Peninsula and could not tolerate the political and economic expansion of Athens. Finally, in 43 1 BC, a war broke out between Athens and Sparta, and most Greek city-states were involved in this war, which was the Peloponnesian War.
In the war mobilization, Perikles, the Archon of Athens, made a speech and called on all the people to participate in the war under the banner of democratic politics. "Our system is called democratic politics, because political power is in the hands of all citizens, not a few. When solving private disputes, everyone is equal in law. When a person is given priority to hold public office, it is not the members of a particular class who are considered, but their real talents. As long as anyone can contribute to the country, he will never be forgotten politically because of poverty. Just because our political life is free and open, so is our daily life. When our next-door neighbor does whatever he wants, we won't be angry about it, and we won't hurt his feelings by giving him an ugly face, even though this color doesn't actually hurt him. In our private lives,
However, the contradictions within Athens and with its allies made the war lose again and again, and were hit by the epidemic of plague, which led to a series of failures, which made the Athenians shake the ideal of democracy and rethink the social crisis. In 404 BC, the Peloponnesian War ended in the defeat of Athens, which marked the beginning of the decline of Athenian democracy.
Aristotle made an incisive summary of Greek politics in his book Politics. All democratic countries understand the controversial principle that they follow as equality of rights, which is manifested in the following aspects: all major issues are submitted to the citizens' assembly for deliberation and decision, public officials are drawn by lot, limited tenure system is implemented, there are many public officials, subsidy system is implemented, and the law specifies exile of nobles who threaten democracy.
Throughout the countries of the ancient world, a democratic country like Athens is indeed unique.
After entering civilized society, many ancient countries left the tail of primitive democracy. With the firm establishment of the autocratic system, this tail gradually degenerated. Only the Athenians, under the new conditions of class society, took the lead in reversing the direction of the development of the political system to the aristocracy, oligarchy and monarchy with minority sovereignty, so that the primitive democracy flourished in the new period and became the political system of most Greek countries within two centuries. The Athenians were able to achieve spiritual achievements reflecting the overall cultural achievements of ancient Greece, and a large number of outstanding thinkers, artists, historians, scientists and politicians emerged, which was obviously related to the democratic system.
In 336 BC, in the northern part of Greece, the kingdom of Macedonia rose and became the overlord of all Greece, ending the classical Greek era and democratic politics. The echo of ancient Greek civilization still echoes in our ears today.