Lokal demokrati i Halasarna, Kos

• This paper describes democracy at a local level in the city-state of Kos c.200 BC. In the Greek city-states, civil servants included both civic and cultofficials. I investigate a group of temple officials, priests and hieropoioi, inthe deme of Halasarna, and present my results concerning their socio-economic standing in society, i.e. that a large part of these officials belong towhat we in modern terms would call the lower middle class. I also relatethe results to the present dominating view on the political development inthe city-states during the Hellenistic period (c. 320–30 BC), viz. that democracy in reality ceased to exist as a small wealthy elite took power. Myresults show that on Kos, democracy was practised on a local level in theearly second century BC.In order to clarify what ancient Greek democracy entails, I present somesimilarities and differences between ancient democracy and modern parliamentary democracy. I also list the most significant traits of ancient democracy, for instance that it is direct (all full citizens can form part of the decision-making group), exclusive (only the grown male part of the populationwith both parents citizens were full citizens) and only exceptionally can acitizen hold a post for more than one or two years running.

Keyword

Classical Archaeology and Ancient History

Antikens kultur och samhällsliv

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

art (subject category)