Antique civilization: the birth of a polis state

Abstract

This article continues the series of publications on the universum evolution of ancient civilization, its subcivilizations and is devoted to the consideration of controversial socio-economic and political processes in the Athenian area of Ancient Greece in the second half of the 8th - the first half of the 4th century. BC e. Attention is focused on the characteristics of the important stages of state formation in Athens. It is shown that the accelerated development of market and commodity-money relations in the 7th - 6th centuries. BC e., catalyzed, among other things, by the great colonization, multiplies the ranks of unborn, but rich artisans, merchants, merchants, usurers, debtor fetes, contributes to the displacement of patriarchal slavery by the classical one. The deepening gap between the changed and growing economic role of these clusters and their political lack of rights, as well as the split of Eupatrides into marketers and traditionalists, stimulated important pro-state reforms, including the codification of customary law, the establishment of courts, the beginning of the formation of administrative-territorial districts that do not coincide with the tribal territorial division. It is shown that the decomposition of the tribal system took place with the participation of the tribal nobility itself, pursuing selfish interests, which led to the victory of the diacrii and the emergence of the state. The role of Solon’s political activity in the formation of the Athenian state, the tyranny of Peisistratus, the reforms of Cleisthenes-Pericles, which contributed to the birth of the polis-state, are analyzed. And if in the overwhelming majority of cases political regimes drift from democracy to authoritarianism and totalitarianism, then in Athens, on the contrary, democratization dominates. It is concluded that it is with the reforms of Pericles in Athens that the formation of a democratic system in its classical form is completed.