The second objection is that most democratic regimes survived, in large part, because they were propped up by an external power or powers. The logic of this objection is quite simple: (1) if anti-democrats staged a coup, they would be challenged militarily by the outside power that supported the dēmos; (2) the combined forces from the outside power and the dēmos would likely defeat the anti-democrats in an armed confrontation; (3) the anti-democrats would thus choose not to stage a coup in the first place.
This “external power theory” is intelligible, but its significance should not be overstated. Even the Athenians, a people most willing and able to prop up democracies, were by no means consistent in their interventions: the aforementioned Old Oligarch, for example, wrote (3.11) that, in the fifth century, they supported the upper classes in many cities; and we know that they even supported “tyrants” in the fourth century.8 It would, in fact, stand to reason that, in general, an external power would prop up a given democracy only if it concluded that that democracy’s domestic supporters would soon be able to maintain control of the polis by themselves. One might appeal here to the difficulties recently encountered by the United States in its attempt to prop up democracies in Iraq and Afghanistan. For the survival of a given democracy, internal factors are primary and external factors, although important, are generally secondary.
The third objection is that pro-democrats would have “naturally” overcome difficulties of mobilization in defense of their democracy. The best basis for that objection is that most Greek poleis were rather small. And if the citizen population of a given polis was small enough, each citizen might gain knowledge of both the nature and intensity of each of his fellow citizens’ political preferences simply from everyday interpersonal interactions. If he knew from such interactions that a majority of them are willing to fight to defend the democracy and that everybody knows that, he likely would assume greater risk in defending the democracy too: he would not wait for a large number of other individuals to act before he does because he would trust that a sufficient number of individuals would follow him.
This “natural solution” theory is reasonable, but its applicability should not be overstated. Malcolm Gladwell has suggested that members of a community larger than about 150 active members cannot rely on interpersonal relationships to solve problems that affect the community as a whole.9 Most poleis (even small ones), however, had several times that number of citizens.10 And mobilizing in response to a coup attempt is particularly dangerous: a person would not act unless he was fully confident that his fellow citizens would risk their lives in defense of the democracy too. One might thus conclude that something “artificial” (i.e., the use of some technology) would have to be created to instill and maintain that trust.
Since the preceding three objections do not fully persuade, it remains reasonable to suspect that democratic regimes persisted in the ancient Greek world in large part because their supporters devised means to mobilize en masse in response to a coup attempt. Some democratic regimes, it is true, might not have had motivated domestic opponents. Some might have been completely propped up by external powers. And the supporters of some democratic regimes might have been able to solve their coordination problems naturally. But, in general, the survival of a given democracy ultimately came down to the capability of domestic supporters to act in its defense. A fundamental question for historians of ancient Greek democracy thus should be, how did pro-democrats in the various democratically governed poleis ensure that they could mobilize in the event of a coup?
This book examines one peculiar, but apparently quite popular, means by which pro-democrats in ancient Greece facilitated large-scale mobilization in defense of their democracy: the promulgation of tyrant-killing legislation—the promulgation, that is, of laws and decrees that explicitly encouraged individuals to “kill a tyrant.”
The Athenians promulgated the earliest known tyrant-killing law—called the decree of Demophantos—in June 410, immediately after the democracy, which had been overthrown in the coup of the Four Hundred, had been reestablished.11 That decree required all Athenians to swear an oath both to kill “whoever overthrows the democracy at Athens (ὃς ἂν καταλύσῃ τὴν δημοκρατίαν τὴν Ἀθήνησι) or holds any office while the democracy is overthrown” and to reward anybody who kills such a man. In crafting the language of that oath, however, Demophantos included language found in an old Athenian anti-tyranny law (Ath. Pol. 16.10)12 and made specific reference to Harmodios and Aristogeiton, Athens’s two famous tyrannicides. Thus, in addition to a general pledge to kill participants of an anti-democratic coup and to reward anyone who kills such a man, all Athenians pledged both to kill “anyone who aims to rule tyrannically or helps to set up the tyrant” (ἐάν τις τυραννεῖν ἐπαναστῇ ἢ τὸν τύραννον συγκαταστήσῃ) and to treat “just like Harmodios and Aristogeiton” (καθάπερ Ἁρμόδιόν τε καὶ Ἀριστογείτονα) anyone who might die attempting to kill a tyrant.13
Three tyrant-killing laws, promulgated in three different cities, were almost certainly modeled off of the decree of Demophantos. The Eretrians ratified the earliest such law in 341, immediately after the Athenians overthrew a pro-Macedonian “tyranny” in that city and reestablished a democratic regime. The Athenians themselves passed another tyrant-killing law, called the law of Eukrates, in the spring of 336, nearly two years after Philip II defeated the Athenian-led coalition at the epoch-making battle of Chaironeia. And the third law comes from Ilion and dates to circa 280. It was likely promulgated shortly after Seleukos I defeated Lysimachos at the Battle of Kouroupedion and consequently assumed control of much of Asia Minor. Each of these laws contains the generic language similar to that found in the decree of Demophantos: a reward is publicly offered to “whoever kills a tyrant” (ὃς δ᾿ ἂν ἀποκτείνηι τὸν τύραννον) and the primary concern articulated is the “overthrow of the democracy” (καταλύειν τὴν δημοκρατίαν).14
Inscribed tyrant-killing documents from two additional cities must be considered together with the aforementioned laws. From Eresos we have a dossier of inscribed texts concerning a trial, ordered by Alexander the Great, of two men who ruled Eresos as “tyrants” in 333. Significantly, the Eresians executed those tyrants and did so in accordance to their “law against tyrants” (ὁ νόμος ὁ κατὰ τῶν τυράννων). We do not have that law. But we know that they had one. And the dossier allows us to assess the significance of its application for the survival of the Eresian democracy. The second city is Erythrai, from which we have an inscribed decree of the dēmos, dating to the early Hellenistic period, that ordered the repairing and frequent crowning of their statue “of Philites the tyrant killer” (Φιλίτου τοῦ ἀποκτείναντος τὸν τύραννον); during an earlier oligarchy, the oligarchs had desecrated it. The document from Erythrai is not a law, but it publicly encourages tyrannicide and thus contains the defining element of an inscribed tyrant-killing law.15
The aforementioned tyrant-killing laws and decrees were thus promulgated in three distinct periods, each of which was important in the history of ancient Greek democracy. The first period, to which belongs the decree of Demophantos, is late-fifth-century Athens, when the viability of the democratic regime that governed that most important polis was severely threatened. Indeed, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the viability of Greek democracy in the post–Peloponnesian War period was largely dependent on the viability of Athens’ democracy.16 The law from Eretria and Athens’ law of Eukrates, on the other hand, date to the end of the so-called Classical period, when the Athenians and their allies combated the attempts by Philip of Macedon and his supporters to subvert democratic regimes on the Greek mainland. And the final three texts—the dossier from Eresos, the “Philites stele” from Erythrai, and the Ilian tyrant-killing law—date to the early Hellenistic period, when, quite remarkably, Alexander and several of his s
uccessors encouraged the democratization of the Greek poleis in the eastern Aegean and western Asia Minor. There is reason to conclude that tyrant-killing legislation was much more popular than the six aforementioned texts might suggest. As we will see in chapter 4, Alexander the Great heavily promoted anti-tyranny and tyrannicide ideology during his conquest of western Asia Minor: he ordered the citizens of various cities to punish the leaders of their pro-Persian faction, whom he specifically referred to as “tyrants”; he issued an anti-tyranny proclamation to the Greek cities in 331, after the battle of Gaugamela; he publicly announced his intention to return to Athens the original statues of Harmodios and Aristogeiton that had been stolen by Xerxes’s forces in 479.17 And, as we will see in the conclusion to chapter 6, there is (often very fragmentary, to be sure) epigraphic evidence from several Asia Minor cities for anti-tyranny or tyrant-killing promulgations that date to the first several decades after Alexander’s conquest. Important examples come from Kalymna, Ephesos, Mylasa, Priene, Olbia, and (perhaps) Nisyros. Thus, when one also takes into consideration the inscriptions from Eresos, Erythrai, and Ilion, there is reason to suspect that the use of tyrant-killing legislation was particularly widespread in western Asia Minor during the earlier years of the Hellenistic period.
Another reason to conclude that tyrant-killing legislation was much more popular than it might originally appear is the fact that the literary sources indicate that tyrant killing was praised throughout the Greek world.18 Authors as different as Aristotle (Pol. 1267a15–16), Xenophon (Hier. 4.5, cf. 6.11), Isokrates (8.143), and Polybios (2.56.15) state that general fact.19 And there are several particular cases that support such generalities. Xenophon, for example, wrote (Hell. 6.4.32) that the assassins of Jason of Pherai were honored in cities specifically because he was a potential tyrant. And the same author wrote (Hell. 7.3.10) that, in trial, one of the men involved in the successful conspiracy to kill Euphron, the tyrant of Sikyon, said that he could expect to receive praise for his act of tyrannicide. In addition, the people of Sikyon erected a statue of Aratos (Plut. Arat. 14), the famous opponent of tyrants, and, after he died, performed sacrifices annually on the day that he deposed the tyrant Nikokles (Plut. Arat. 53). The Achaeans dedicated in Delphi a statue of Philopoimen that depicted him in the act of killing the tyrant Machanidas (Plut. Phil. 10.8; cf. Syll.3 625).20 And the people of Syracuse buried Timoleon in their agora at public expense and held annual musical and athletic games “because he overthrew the tyrants” (Plut. Tim. 39).21
Scholars have published important work on each of the known tyrant-killing laws and decrees. The work by epigraphers is particularly helpful. Simply put, as a result of their efforts, historians can both read what is on the extant portions of the stones and be reasonably confident about what was written on the lost portions. Epigraphic work on the dossier from Eresos and the laws from Ilion and Eretria is particularly impressive. Progress also has been made on the historical front. Many of the most important dates have been established, a task much more difficult than it might seem. And analyses of the documents’ historical contexts have provided a fine initial orientation for further, more extensive inquiries.
As solid as the existing scholarship on tyrant-killing legislation is, it is still incomplete. For example, there is no comprehensive work that studies all of the relevant texts: most studies focus on a particular text, citing the others as parallels. The only attempt to study all tyrant-killing documents in a single monograph was published by Friedel in 1937. But two important inscriptions have been discovered since then (the Eretrian law and the law of Eukrates). And Friedel’s analysis of the other texts is rather brief. Much more fundamentally, scholars have not yet explained how the promulgation of a tyrant-killing law might actually have helped pro-democrats defend their regime against a coup d’état in practice—the obvious purpose of such legislation. Such an explanation is essential, of course, simply to understand the nature of this peculiar type of legislation. And that understanding might, in turn, provide important insights into both the nature of ancient Greek democracy and the basis of its persistence within the larger Greek world.
As already noted, this book’s overarching thesis is that pro-democrats promulgated tyrant-killing legislation in order to facilitate large-scale mobilization in response to an organized coup d’état. That is, it helped individuals work as a group and take advantage of their numerical superiority. I will fully explain the means by which the promulgation of such legislation achieved that end in chapter 1, when we examine the historical and sociopolitical context within which tyrant-killing law was invented in late-fifth-century Athens. But it will be helpful to anticipate the discussion here.
The promulgation of tyrant-killing law facilitated large-scale pro-democracy mobilization by accomplishing two complementary tasks. The first task was to widely publicize the pro-democrats’ commitment to defend their democratic regime in the event of a coup d’état. That demonstration of commitment would convince moderately risk-averse individuals that, should they defend the democracy, a sufficient number of individuals would follow them. Those moderately risk-averse individuals would thus require fewer people to act in defense of the democracy before they do. Such commitments, however, since they concern actions that are so dangerous, almost certainly would not be fully credible to everybody. But an individual who, before the promulgation of the law, would have required roughly 35 percent of the population to act in defense of the democracy before he thought it safe enough to act, might now—that is, after its promulgation—require only 30 percent of the population to act before he acts. And an individual who would have required 30 percent of the population to act before he did might now require only 25 percent of the population to act first. Again, the reason is that they believe that others will follow them.
The second task was to widely publicize the rewards that would be given to an exceptionally brave individual who struck the first blow in defense of the democracy—to the individual, that is, who “killed a tyrant.” Before the promulgation of the law, such an individual might have waited for “one person” to defend the democracy before he thought it safe enough to do so. But, after the law’s ratification, he would conclude that the positive, selective incentives made it worth the risk to go first: like the moderately risk-averse individuals, he would believe that a sufficient number of people will follow him. And should such an individual “kill a tyrant,” another individual who, after the promulgation of the tyrant-killing law, was waiting for only “one person” to act before he did, would join in the defense of the democracy. And then someone who was waiting for “two people” to act would act, and so on. The first person’s act of “tyrannicide” would thus have initiated a pro-democratic revolutionary bandwagon; the pro-democrats would overwhelm their opponents.
The promulgation of tyrant-killing legislation thus, in theory, gave the pro-democrats a credible “second strike” capability. Anti-democrats might still conclude that they could stage a well-coordinated coup, perhaps killing prominent pro-democrats and quickly seizing control of the public space. But those anti-democrats also would have to factor into their calculus of decision the likelihood that pro-democrats, nonetheless, would be able to mobilize in defense of their democracy pursuant to a public act of tyrannicide. If the pro-democrats were able to mobilize (i.e., if the act of tyrannicide initiated a revolutionary bandwagon), the resulting conflict would be between two unequally sized factions: minority anti-democrats and majority democrats.22 And since anti-democrats would likely lose that battle, they might choose not to defect in the first place. The result of such a successful “unilateral deterrence” scenario would be a stable democracy.23
Each of the following six chapters presents a historical and sociopolitical analysis of one tyrant-killing enactment. As would be expected, the chapters exhibit a great deal of variety. The text of the decree of Demophantos and its context, for example, are quite different from the remarkably long law from Hellenistic Ilion. There are, however
, three elements that are common to them all.
One common element is the identification of the “tyrannical” threat. It perhaps goes without saying, but pro-democrats promulgated tyrant-killing legislation because they believed that anti-democrats might stage a coup. But why did they feel threatened? Or, perhaps better, what, in particular, were they afraid of? The quantity and quality of evidence available to answer such questions vary from case to case. But, in each instance, it is important to consider both internal and external factors.
Another common element is an explanation of how the promulgation of the law or decree would have addressed the tyrannical threat. Generally speaking, the answer is the same for them all: namely, by facilitating large-scale mobilization in the event of a coup. (And, again, the means by which that end was accomplished is fully described in chapter 1.) But each of the texts is different from the others. Thus the task is to explain how the unique elements or provisions contributed to the workings of the law as a whole. To put it in the form of a question, how would the various unique elements of the law—and thus the law as a whole—alter the behavior of individuals to the advantage of the democratic regime?
A final common element is an assessment of the law or decree’s effectiveness. The operative question here is straightforward: Did the promulgation of the law or decree help the pro-democrats maintain control of their polis? That is, no doubt, a difficult question to answer: discerning cause is problematic in general, and there are no sources that assert that a particular tyrant-killing law or decree “worked.” But, unless one concludes that the promulgation of tyrant-killing legislation could never contribute to the defense of a democracy, it is worthwhile looking at the evidence in order to determine what sort of circumstantial case can be made.
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