The Role Of Cylon And Megacles In Athenian Democracy

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Suraj Hardowar Ramnarain Prof. Trumbach 11/9/2013 During the period of 600-400 b.c. and of the Athenian time period, there was much conflict. First off we must understand that the Athenians are Greeks that came lived around and near the Mediterranean Sea. Athens had the first democracy in the world. They used logical thinking and philosophy to make their democracy stand out and be very sturdy. The leading pioneer in this logical thinking is from Socrates. Socrates after beginning to use this logical thinking was put on trial for corruption of youth because he was questioning god and the faith that people put into god. He was trying to make them do things logically instead of blindly following faith and religion. Socrates gave these Athenian…show more content…
Members of the victim’s family settled murders. The male member of the family would then go and kill the person who committed the murder. This often began endless blood feuds. It was not until the middle of the seventh century BC that the Greeks first began to establish official laws. Around 620 BC Draco wrote the first known written law of Ancient Greece. Solon changed his laws of course when his time came to begin. The story of Cylon and Megacles very clearly shows the problems between the ric and the rich. Megacles was the head of government and Cylon was the aristocrat (Plutarch 52). Cylon was planning to overthrow the government. Megalces was therefore trying to protect the government. The aristocrats were fighting over land ownership. Cylon had received troops from his father-in law and Megalces decided that it was wrong for that to happen. When Megacles killed many of Cylons people the blood feuds bgan. The blood feuds were basically never ending cycles of killing. After one member of a certain family had been killed then the leading male of that family would kill that person. Then the person who died would have a son or newphe who would eventually avenge his death. These blood feuds lasted very long times because of the importance of male pride. The male pride aspect played in because if you decided not to kill then some people may look at you as weak. Although after the feuds had been going on long enough, other families were getting sick and tired of it (trumbach). What Solon tries to do and outstandingly does is to end the alliances created by marriages. He does not allow dowries to continue to exist. He outlaws dowries because dowries are what made the the husband’s family like the wife’s family more and therefore allows the husband to want to fight the blood feud of her wife’s family. By not allowing dowries to continue, Solon stops that sort of marriage alliance. Solon
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