Pnyx - Athenian Democracy

Athenian Democracy

Scholars such as Mogens Herman Hansen suggest the pnyx was able to hold about 6,000 citizens, though later expansions may have accommodated 8,000 or as many as 13,000. French classical scholar Robert Flacelière states that the Pnyx had enough standing room for as many as 20,000 citizens., though this is disputed. The grassy area in front of the bema was in ancient times an area of bare rock, in which about 6,000 men could stand. This can be taken as a reasonable estimate of the number of politically active citizens (citizens were free males born in the city, or perhaps 20% of the adult population). There were wooden seats for the members of the Council of 500, who were selected by lot for terms of a single year to run the city on a day-to-day basis, and prepare the agenda for the Assembly. In later times two stoae, or covered galleries, were built to protect the dignitaries against the rain and sun.

In theory, all citizens were equal and all had the right to speak. In practice, relatively few citizens actually spoke or proposed actions. A citizen who made a proposal might be subjected to a future prosecution (graphe paranomon) if the proposal was illegal or came to be seen as detrimental to Athens. There was a rule that citizens aged over 50 had a right to be heard first.

Democratic government at Athens was suspended in 411 BC and again in 404 BC with the assumption of power by oligarchies during crises in the Peloponnesian War. The Spartans and their allies in Athens installed a dictatorship, called the Thirty Tyrants, but in 403 BC the democrats seized power again and the meetings at the Pnyx resumed. Athens lost its independence to Philip II of Macedon after the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC; but they continued to run their internal affairs democratically until the coup by Demetrius of Phaleron in 322 BC. After his fall, the Athenians continued to run their internal affairs according to democratic forms for centuries.