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The Nature of Things with David Suzuki S65E11 Athens Birth of Democracy
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00:142,500 years ago, in ancient Greece, a revolutionary political experiment began that would change
00:21the world. This is basically ground zero for where democracy starts. In the city-state of Athens,
00:30a revolutionary style of government was born. For the first time in recorded history,
00:36elites agreed to share power with the poorest citizens. It was called Demokritia, rule by the
00:48people. But where did this idea come from? How did it work? And why did those in power allow it?
00:58I'm in Athens, Greece, to meet with researchers, using science to reveal new clues to answer these
01:05questions and more. This mineral is the main fuel of democracy. Decoding ancient evidence to understand
01:15the origins of democracy. This is the democracy machine? This is a machine?
01:24Shedding light on how it protected itself from tyranny and corruption, while exposing its hidden
01:33dark side. That sounds about as close to torture as anything I've ever heard of. As we piece together
01:39the epic story that laid the foundation for today's global democracies, including ours in Canada.
01:46The ancients would laugh at us if we said that's a democratic society.
01:52And reveal the lessons this ancient experiment can teach us, both then and now.
01:58This is prime real estate for Greek history.
02:10What is democracy? When it started here in Athens, Greece,
02:16themokritia, or rule by the people, it looked pretty different.
02:21There were dramatic assemblies where people had to shout to be heard.
02:25There was a lottery system for choosing leaders. There was even a role for the gods.
02:34Today, there are many governments around the world calling themselves democratic,
02:39operating by different rules.
02:42Do you feel like democracy is healthy?
02:45Depending on like which part of the world.
02:48The United States is a limited and flawed democracy.
02:53A lot of countries where the democracy is going downwards or disappearing,
02:58now is the right time to do what we can to keep it as it is.
03:01People with money influencing power, you see it in everything.
03:05A healthy democracy is a place where your voice is kind of heard.
03:09The politicians there are making policies and changes based off of like what the people want.
03:16So, how did democracy get started in the first place?
03:20To find out, we need to go back to where it all started.
03:28This is the Acropolis, a rocky outcrop in the heart of Athens,
03:33where the legendary Parthenon still stands.
03:37It was built over 2500 years ago, during a time of upheaval,
03:42that gave rise to Western civilization's first democracy.
03:49For over a century, archaeologists have been excavating the ruins here,
03:54an ancient public plaza known as the Agora.
03:59It's here where they believe democracy was born.
04:05Welcome to the Agora.
04:07This place was the heart of Athens.
04:10It's kind of like if social media came to life with exclusively real people,
04:14which means that digging up artifacts here
04:16is kind of like sifting through the private databases of Instagram or TikTok.
04:21And archaeologists have been at it for centuries.
04:24They've recently opened up an entirely new section of it,
04:27which makes it the perfect place to understand Athenian life
04:30and the preconditions you need for creating a democracy.
04:35It's also home to the Stoa of Attalus,
04:39a building constructed by an American research institution
04:42dedicated to all things ancient Greece.
04:52Archaeologist John Camp, the school's former head,
04:55leads me to the basement where thousands of priceless artifacts are held.
05:00This place is amazing.
05:02Yeah, it's something, isn't it?
05:03John spent his entire career unearthing the secrets of ancient Greece.
05:09It's all these cases up here are what we call context pottery.
05:15And what that means is it's the broken pieces of pottery
05:17that we found in every different layer we've ever dug.
05:21So they're very complicated in terms of their record keeping,
05:24the tags with numbers in order to keep track of them.
05:27May I?
05:27You may.
05:28The thing about pottery, which is interesting,
05:31is that it's fragile, but it's indestructible.
05:34And so you would go through the whole batch the day you dig it.
05:38And you pull out the pieces that are coming down to a certain date
05:42and then know later what else was found with it.
05:45And there may be, if we look in the notebooks,
05:46there may be coins or maybe all sorts of other things.
05:49Wow.
05:49So this is full of information, chronological information,
05:53because then that tells you the layer you've dug.
05:55And most people would see this and just see a bunch of broken pottery.
05:57Yeah, it is a bunch of broken pottery.
05:58And you see an archaeologist's toolkit.
06:00Yeah.
06:00So every layer we've ever dug is represented by these divisions here.
06:08These shattered pottery fragments have been instrumental in helping uncover democracy's origins.
06:17Prior to 500 BC, humble commoners had no say in public affairs.
06:23Societies were led by kings, pharaohs, or small groups of elites,
06:27who often ruled with an iron fist.
06:31The result was social unrest.
06:34But attempts by citizens to overthrow their rulers were brutally crushed.
06:42As this excavation in downtown Athens reveals, 80 skeletons, all young men,
06:49found with their hands shackled, violently killed.
06:52Their mouths open as if dying in excruciating pain.
06:57Evidence of a failed, bloody coup.
07:02Violent events like this one fueled the shift from tyranny to democracy.
07:08And it was here, in the Agora, that a dramatic series of events, including murder,
07:15paved the way for this new form of governance.
07:27John Camp leads me to the dig site of the Stoa Poikile, an area previously hidden,
07:33buried beneath modern buildings.
07:36Archaeologists have slowly acquired rights to the land, allowing for a new excavation,
07:41and fresh details about the origins of democracy.
07:47This place looks important.
07:51I am not an archaeologist.
07:53Is this place important?
07:54This place is very important, and fairly recently discovered.
07:58The old parts, which were not 100% certain of the date,
08:02let's say 6th century BC, are this bit of wall that you see here,
08:07and this bit of wall over there.
08:09Right.
08:09And what that is, you can see it's not a weight-bearing wall.
08:13It just comes up and defines sacred ground here, and not sacred ground over there.
08:20So like a temple?
08:21Yeah, except it's not a building.
08:22It's just an enclosure, and this is the wall that tells you the limits.
08:26Okay.
08:27An inscription discovered on this statue base was the clue John's been looking for,
08:34revealing that we're standing at the site of the Leo Korean,
08:37an open-air temple where a bloody act of violence occurred.
08:42So you have five or six inscriptions, and all of them have to do with this guy, Laos.
08:48That's why it's called the Leo Korean, and we've never known where it was,
08:52except that it's somewhere in the big square until about five years ago when we dug this.
08:56Right.
08:56But what makes it really important is that the murder of one of the two tyrants
09:02took place at the Leo Korean in 514 BC.
09:07The murder of the tyrants?
09:08So this is where the first murder of Hipparchus takes place.
09:12The tyrant who was ruling Athens before the start of democracy was killed?
09:16Yep, was killed here.
09:19According to the writings of ancient Greek historians, in 514 BC, the entire city was gathered here to
09:26celebrate the goddess Athena. When out of nowhere, two men armed with knives attacked and killed the
09:34tyrant Hipparchus, one of two brothers ruling Athens. After the murder, the remaining brother,
09:41Hippias, was driven out by citizens, leaving no one in charge.
09:46The door was open for a new form of governance.
09:50So where we're standing right now is basically ground zero for where democracy starts.
09:56That is absolutely true. As a result of this assassination, within five or ten years,
10:02you have democracy.
10:03So this is like the...
10:04This is the first step.
10:05The thing that triggers a change that will change the world.
10:08That's right.
10:10Wow.
10:10It takes place at the Leo Korean, and you see we've got evidence in the form of six inscriptions
10:15saying welcome to the Leo Korean.
10:17Wow.
10:18So this is prime real estate for Greek history.
10:22You heard it right. It was murder that paved the way for democracy, but it didn't happen overnight.
10:30I mean, there's no government, right? Like the Athenian people are used to having tyrants,
10:34good or bad. That's all they know.
10:36Yep.
10:36Now they've got nothing.
10:38You're right back to where you were before the tyrants, where you have constant conflict
10:42between aristocratic clans.
10:46With their tyrannical rulers dead and gone,
10:48and no clear leader emerging to replace them, Athens was in a state of anarchy and violence.
10:57Enter this guy, Cleisthenes. A shrewd and savvy statesman, he came up with a solution.
11:04It was called demokratia. Demos meaning people and kratos meaning rule.
11:12Using his intellect and charisma, he managed to persuade both nobles and commoners
11:17to adopt this radical new form of government.
11:23So the tyrants are gone, and the government is in chaos, and Cleisthenes comes along,
11:27and he says, I got an idea for how to fix this. What's his big idea?
11:32What he did was to break up the power of the old aristocracy.
11:36Right.
11:37They were based in big families or clans, and your hierarchy and your success depended a lot
11:42on where you fit in the system and how much money you and your clan had.
11:46He removed that significance by creating 10 completely new administrative units we call tribes.
11:55Okay, so he takes these old aristocracies and their hierarchies,
11:59he chops them up and shuffles the board and says, reset.
12:02Yes, pretty much. But in each tribe, he took one-third of its participants from the city of Athens,
12:10one-third from the inland area, and one-third from the coast.
12:13So when you're done, you have equal representation amongst all the 10 tribes.
12:19Okay, so it's reset, but he makes sure that every different part of the Athenian society is physically represented.
12:27Yes. Each tribe was named after one of the heroes of Athens, and so you now have 10 tribes,
12:34each with its own eponymous name. And what this is, is a statue base that represents that change.
12:43There would be 10 bronze statues on here, one for each of the 10 heroes.
12:47Okay.
12:49So this guy basically kicks open the clubhouse doors and says,
12:52everybody's welcome. Bring your auntie, bring your uncle, come on in.
12:56Probably not your auntie.
12:57Right, right. The ancient Athenians didn't really recognize women.
13:03Not as political entities.
13:05Okay. As people?
13:06As people, yeah, a little bit, as sources of all sorts of things.
13:10But not able to contribute in democracy?
13:11Not in the public sphere.
13:14Clearly, the first democracy was far from perfect.
13:18But Kleisthenes' idea was revolutionary, and a huge departure from the old clan-based system.
13:26Each of the 10 new tribes blended citizens from the three zones,
13:32mixing people from different regions together for the first time in history.
13:37All power, authority, and public offices were shared between the tribes,
13:43and most officials were selected randomly. Yeah, that's right, random selection.
13:49This created new bonds of loyalty and equality within the tribes, weakening the influence of the clans.
13:58I'm here at the Agara Museum to meet researcher Lillian Lopez-Rabitel to find out more about how
14:04the randomness of lot drawing can actually help a democracy.
14:10When most people think about a democracy, they think about choosing the best person for the job.
14:15Why would you want to pick people by lottery instead of using elections?
14:20It was founded on the idea that every citizen might have the same chance to participate to a public life.
14:29So with the allotment, there is no corruptions.
14:32So when you run an election, if you vote for this candidate, you know,
14:37there can be some of that give-and-take, the quid pro quo.
14:39Yes, there were campaigns, and then you can influence the rotation, and so with the allotment, it's impossible.
14:49Lillian takes me to see a fragment of this mysterious lottery machine.
14:54She has a theory about how it worked.
14:58This? This is the democracy machine? This is a machine?
15:03Yes, it's a machine, because it has a device on the left part, the machine to allot a clearotarian.
15:11How does it work? I mean, what part, what are these holes about? How do I use it to pick
15:15people?
15:16Yes, every citizen had a tablet, a Pinakion, on which there were engraved his name, his patronymic, and the name
15:25of his dame.
15:27So that would be something almost like my ID that I carry around.
15:30Yes.
15:31This is a complicated system. Why not just pull names out of a hat?
15:34Well, you see, there are 11 columns, so with one die, you can select at the same time 11 people.
15:43Okay, so it was faster.
15:46Yes, it was faster. They invented this machine to do this more quickly and more efficient.
15:55No example of a fully intact clerotarian has ever been found.
16:00But Lillian and her team have a plan to reconstruct one based on their findings.
16:09They've enlisted the help of Greek sculptor Penaeotus Zastanakis to recreate the original and test their theory about how it
16:16worked.
16:18What we are going to do is experimental archaeology, actually. We are going to use only ancient techniques.
16:24So this might lead to interesting conclusions.
16:28The plan is to try out the finished clerotarian with a group of 150 participants, just like it was done
16:35in ancient Greece.
16:37The question is, will it actually work?
16:482,500 years ago in ancient Greece, a visionary statesman named Cleisthenes was leading a revolution that shifted power from
16:58an elite few to all citizens for the very first time.
17:11It's hard to overstate how impressive this was.
17:15After 3,000 years of civilization, Athens hits the reset button on society and Cleisthenes tries to remodel it from
17:23scratch.
17:24And more than that, he's pretty successful at it.
17:26Now, granted, there are a couple of pretty serious oversights, like not including women, but overall, it's a solid effort
17:33considering the challenge.
17:35Convincing an entire society to just go along with a new form of government you just invented is not easy.
17:46Cleisthenes was built for this.
17:48He was a visionary and a member of one of the city's oldest political families.
17:53He was the right man at the right time for democracy.
17:57So how did he hack the system to persuade Athenian citizens from all sides to adopt a radical new form
18:06of government?
18:08To find out, I've traveled 120 kilometers from Athens to Delphi, the religious heart of ancient Greece,
18:16and home to Apollo, one of the most powerful Greek gods.
18:21When Athenians had a problem, they asked him for help through oracles.
18:25Athenian women who were believed to interpret the will of the gods.
18:33This is beautiful.
18:35This is a magnificent landscape.
18:37You understand why it was chosen to be the place where the god was living, because it's just fantastic.
18:46Veronique Tchenkowski, director of the French School of Athens, explains why Cleisthenes came here.
18:54He was looking for a legitimacy.
18:56The question was how to validate this reform.
19:00He was not asking how he has to do the reform.
19:04He was asking for a validation to make it stronger in front of his people.
19:10That this was not random, that this was ordained by the gods.
19:13Exactly.
19:15After Cleisthenes, drawing lots became part of the democratic system.
19:21A technical tool to help the democratic process.
19:25Oh, that's so hard to wrap your head around when you come from a democracy like ours in Canada,
19:30where there's nobody spiritual who's dictating what our rules or laws should be.
19:35I think that the idea is not that the god is dictating anything.
19:40I mean, people are coming with their hypothesis.
19:44They've already built their decisions, but they're asking for the validation.
19:49Right.
19:49They're asking for legitimacy.
19:52And people trusted the oracles.
19:53They trusted the oracle, and they also trusted the sanctuary of Delphi as a center of competence.
20:04Northeast of Athens, construction of the ancient lottery machine is underway.
20:11Lillian Lopez-Rabital and sculptor Peneotis Zastanakis are sourcing pentallic marble
20:17as the raw material to create their cleretarian.
20:20The same marble used to build the Parthenon.
20:28It's difficult to imagine it will be a clear rotillion.
20:32Yeah, it is.
20:33As a specialist in antique restoration, this experiment is a unique opportunity for Peneotis.
20:40So this is something that I am very interested in because it's like an investigation.
20:44I know the techniques, but every time that I work like this,
20:47I see something more.
20:51I like the experimental archaeology.
20:53It's very fascinating.
21:01Penny Otis lives on the island of Tinos,
21:04150 kilometers southeast of Athens.
21:07Sheltered from the blazing sun in his homemade workshop,
21:10he begins the process.
21:12And the Claretarium starts to take shape.
21:16One of the most difficult parts of making of the Claretarium is this hole,
21:20because it is against the grain of the marble.
21:22It is easy to split the marble in this direction.
21:28You can tell that everything is all right judging with the area.
21:32If the sound changes, I have to be careful.
21:35But as long as this spell knowledge is the same all over the place,
21:39I'm okay.
21:40There are no cracks inside.
21:43It's very dramatic.
21:47In ancient Athens, these machines could vary in size,
21:50depending on how many people needed to be chosen.
21:55For example, they were used at the Boletarium
21:58to select a council of 500 citizens who would gather almost daily
22:02to debate new legislation.
22:04But there was also a much larger gathering open to all citizens.
22:13Welcome to the Paniks.
22:15About once a week, every male citizen, 6,000 in all, would gather here to participate in the assembly.
22:23Basically, they debate everything from laws and financial policies to declarations of war.
22:28And as you might expect, it was pandemonium.
22:32Everyone shouting and arguing, desperate to be heard above the crowd.
22:38A looming concern for citizens was the potential of a single individual or small group of people
22:45gaining too much control and sliding back into tyranny.
22:51Recognizing these fears,
22:53Cleisthenes once again provided an innovative solution designed to deter rogue citizens from attempting a dangerous power grab.
23:01It was called ostracism.
23:05To find out more, I catch up with John Camp,
23:08who pulls out those all-important pottery fragments to show me how it worked.
23:15What do we have here?
23:16Okay, these are examples of what are called ostraca,
23:19which is the Greek term for either a seashell or a broken piece of pottery.
23:26What makes them ostraca is these are part of the political system in Athens.
23:30Once a year, you would have a general election in the marketplace.
23:34And the question was, is anybody aiming at a tyranny?
23:38Okay.
23:39Is anybody a problem for the democracy?
23:42Right.
23:42And if a simple majority voted yes, they would come back several weeks later.
23:47In the Agora, they would have brought with them a broken piece of pottery, an ostracon.
23:52So these things.
23:53On which they had scratched the name of the person they thought represented a threat to the democracy.
23:58Oh yeah, okay.
23:58The man with the most votes lost.
24:01And he was exiled for 10 years.
24:04So they tell you, pack your bags.
24:05Yeah, they're just throwing them out of the doorway in Washington terms.
24:08Yep.
24:09Wow.
24:09You leave the state of Athens.
24:11You don't lose your property.
24:12It's kind of an honorific.
24:13It means you're a powerful player.
24:15But you have to go live somewhere else for 10 years unless you're recalled.
24:20Wow.
24:20And so that is thought to calm down any tyrannical leanings on the part of that individual.
24:27Every significant Athenian politician of the 5th century BC, except for Pericles, was ostracized.
24:34Really?
24:35Yeah.
24:35So was it just like the whims of kind of public opinion?
24:38So it sounds like even some of the good politicians were kicked out.
24:41They were given a vacation.
24:42They were told to calm down for a while.
24:44Exactly.
24:45And the fact that everybody got it or was subject to it is probably healthy.
24:49So this is kind of like an anti-corruption technology.
24:53Yeah, anti-corruption or just anti- anybody getting too much power.
24:57Wow.
25:02Kleistany's plan for a revolutionary new form of government was working.
25:08For the first time in history, ordinary citizens had equal power to the elite.
25:14Democracy was flourishing.
25:16And for nearly a century, Athens experienced what's known as the golden age of democracy.
25:23So we're now in the golden age.
25:26They've got equality, they've got elections, allotments, anti-corruption strategies, and
25:30their districting.
25:31What is it like for Athenians?
25:33It must have been a very exciting time.
25:35And the result was that talent was attracted to Athens because it offered such opportunities
25:42along with this, what we think of as relative freedom for people living there.
25:47Like the philosopher Aristotle, who was actually a Macedonian.
25:50You have Thucydides, you have Herodotus as historians.
25:54You have great speakers like Demosthenes.
25:57You have the three great playwrights.
25:59So the competition that comes with this sucking in of talent has to create a golden age
26:05if you can maintain it.
26:06It was the best of times for Athenian democracy.
26:10But trying to maintain the golden age would prove to be difficult and dangerous.
26:24Democracy in Athens was revolutionary and world-changing.
26:28It provided an incredible quality of life for its citizens.
26:32But that doesn't mean it was perfect.
26:34Back then there were three levels to Athenian society.
26:37Men, women, and slaves.
26:40And they weren't all considered citizens.
26:46Slaves, the third tier of Athenian society, were critical to helping fuel and finance the democratic machine in Athens.
26:53They worked here, in the Laverian silver mines.
26:59Spanning over 70 square kilometers, the Laverian mines are massive.
27:05But the real story lies beneath the surface, in a giant maze of thousands of tunnels.
27:12Oh, wow.
27:15Oh, wow.
27:16To get a first-hand feel for what life was like in one of these ancient mine shafts,
27:20I meet up with geologist Marcos Vaxavanopoulos, who takes me inside.
27:25There's like zero room in here.
27:28It's crawling room only.
27:30You know, it has been enlarged.
27:32This is enlarged?
27:33Yes.
27:35These shafts are tiny, barely big enough to fit a human.
27:41Oh, wow.
27:42Is it okay?
27:43I mean, no.
27:45It's like, chunks of rock falling on me.
27:48Keep digging them into my spine.
27:51I am woefully underprepared for this.
27:55And, you know, it gets narrower.
27:58No, I can't. I can't.
28:00I can't imagine that.
28:02Oh, boy.
28:05Oh.
28:06That was the...
28:07Thumbs up.
28:08That's the most uncomfortable thing I've ever done.
28:11Oh, my God.
28:13These tunnels are super small, but it opens up here.
28:16What gives?
28:17Yes, we are in a place that's two different corridors with different galleries.
28:22And also, in this place, you can easily see some tool marks, like this.
28:26Oh, yeah.
28:27Yeah.
28:28It's the mark of the chisel.
28:30So there would have been something valuable in here.
28:32Yes, there are veins of iron minerals and galena.
28:39Wow.
28:40Galena is the precious raw ore that ancient miners were looking for.
28:45This is precious because...
28:47Can you tell by the weight?
28:48Well, it's heavy.
28:49Yeah?
28:49Yeah, it's really heavy. It's shiny.
28:51It looks kind of like it's got silver.
28:53This is galena that hosts the minerals of silver.
28:57Okay.
28:57So the target for the ancients was this kind of color and this weight.
29:02This mineral is the main fuel of democracy, galena and silver.
29:07Wow.
29:08If you're digging for this kind of stuff 4th, 5th century, how many people would be down in a space
29:13like this?
29:14In a mine of 1,000 meters length, 100, 150 miners, each one in his part, the small part that
29:24used to dig with a sledgehammer and the chisel, trying to follow this kind of vein, crawling and with a
29:33hammer, hammering.
29:34Oh, that is, oh, just the claustrophobic nightmare.
29:37And imagine another thing that they didn't have anything, probably they were naked.
29:43Naked?
29:43Naked.
29:44They had only the hammer, the chisel and a small lab for the light.
29:50That sounds about as close a torture as anything I've ever heard of.
29:53Yes.
29:53I think the most torturing thing is that they spent most of their life inside, working 18, 16 hours per
30:02day inside this kind of environment.
30:06That's just unbelievable.
30:07We fully respect this kind of people because a lot of things in history depend and rely on their workforce
30:16and their work that they did.
30:23Outside the mine shafts, researchers have discovered other traces of slave labor.
30:29It could be that these two people, these co-workers, would rest after a very harsh day and make the
30:37outlines of their feet.
30:40Archaeologist Andreas Capitanios takes me on a hike of the mine's surface area.
30:44These materials remain and these materials remain.
30:47It's an impressive feat of ancient engineering, but it came at a steep price.
30:53One of the things that we can grasp when you go through this landscape is scale.
31:00And scale goes to optimization of production, and optimization of production goes to control of resources and human power.
31:09And human power equals labor, and labor here, most of it, equals slaves.
31:15It must have been awful. You have no freedom. You don't benefit from the democracy, and this is happening to
31:21how many slaves?
31:24Written resources are scarce, but we do have a census. The exact date of that census is 313.
31:32The Athenian citizens were 20.000, which means male over 18.
31:40Citizens of other cities, Greek cities, that came to Athens to work, they were 10.000.
31:47And slaves were 300.000.
31:52Three.
31:53Three.
31:54Yeah.
31:55Yeah.
31:55This number has been criticized as an exaggeration.
32:00But it's the only information we've got which is concrete and specific.
32:07You know, it's amazing because this would have been considered the golden age of democracy.
32:11It really puts the technological advancements that came out of this place in a different light.
32:17Well, we need to historicize the content of these concepts.
32:22Slavery means different things for us, and meant different things in classical Athens.
32:27Slaves are linked to, uh, captures of war.
32:32Right.
32:33And the capture of war loses his humanity.
32:37Okay.
32:38Usually, archaeology is able to, to allow for these groups of people who in antiquity were silent, such as the
32:47slaves, to allow for them to speak.
32:52But not all slaves were doomed to the mines.
32:55A second, unique form of slavery existed in Athens.
33:00Public slaves played a crucial role, serving as policemen, clerks, and accountants, among others.
33:06Kind of like a permanent civil service at the heart of democracy.
33:15Since the governing citizens chosen by random lots had just a one-year mandate, the slaves' consistent presence in these
33:23key positions ensured continuity for the state.
33:30Fueled by the riches from the silver mines, Athens developed into a superpower.
33:35As they grew stronger, the Athenians were determined to find ways to keep its citizens united and protect democracy.
33:46External threats served to keep the people together.
33:50In the fifth century BC, a Persian invasion led Athens to construct a fleet of 200 warships, called Triremes.
34:01The effort to build and crew these ships united its citizens, a lesson that still resonates today.
34:15Every year, the Greek navy trains its recruits on a replica of an ancient warship.
34:22It was reconstructed based on texts and carvings.
34:25Inside, rowers are arranged on three different levels, hence the name Triremes.
34:35Unlike Roman galleys, which were manned by slaves, Athenian Triremes were powered by citizens.
34:42The ships became an extension of democracy, uniting citizens as they worked and fought together for a common cause.
34:52We could therefore say that essentially the Athenian democracy is a rowing democracy.
35:00In 480 BC, thanks to the Triremes, the Athenian fleets and its allies won a historic victory over the largest
35:08Persian armada ever assembled.
35:15You can sit here.
35:17Just in here?
35:18Be careful with your head.
35:20Yeah.
35:21After returning to port...
35:23When I say two, you will put it in the water and you will push back.
35:27Okay.
35:28Okay.
35:28The ship's commander lets me take a shot at rowing.
35:32Wish me luck.
35:33Two.
35:34Two.
35:35One.
35:36One.
35:37Two.
35:42This ship is hard work.
35:45But it's also really inspiring.
35:48When you think about all the political will, all the money, all the civic pride that went into it.
35:54Everybody pulling in the same direction.
35:58It's incredible.
35:59And it's hard to imagine anything bringing it to an end.
36:08Back on the island of Tinos, Liliane Lopez-Rabital makes the journey to check in on how the construction of
36:15the Claretarian is progressing.
36:17Super.
36:21Wonderful.
36:25Very nice.
36:43Very nice.
36:45Very nice.
36:46How many?
36:49It seems to work.
36:51Well.
36:51Very nice.
36:55Penny Otis is fine-tuning the last details to ensure their Claretarian will perform as hoped.
37:03In just a few days, this ancient lottery machine will be put to the test in front of a live
37:09audience for the first time in over 2,000 years.
37:21It's time for the first full-scale test of the democracy machine.
37:26Our Claretarian replica at the Agora in Athens.
37:30Any of you heard of a Claretarian before?
37:32Yeah.
37:33I see one hand at the back.
37:36Along with 150 students, I'm here to participate in a unique archaeological experiment that will demonstrate how these lottery machines
37:45really worked.
37:47So, hello everyone.
37:50We are pleased now to reveal the result of this work.
38:04So now, imagine you are in Athens in the 4th century BC.
38:09You are the citizens of this democratic city.
38:15At that time, citizens gathered at dawn to be randomly chosen to serve as jurors.
38:21Drawing lots also helped prevent corruption of the jury, since no one could know in advance who would sit in
38:28court that day.
38:29The procedure was visible to all, guaranteeing that there would be no cheating.
38:36This is a very important aspect of the machine.
38:39No cheating is possible.
38:44We each take a Panachian, an identity tag engraved with an ancient Greek name, and one of five letters.
38:53These letters correspond to columns on the Claretarian, and tell us where to line up on the floor.
39:00I just got my Panachian.
39:03I just got my Panachian.
39:04I'm an honorary Athenian.
39:05This is basically what your average Athenian would have as their sort of allotment registration.
39:10So today, I am Uthenides Philatios.
39:17Once the Panachians are collected and mixed up in boxes, they're inserted into the Claretarian, and the lottery begins.
39:28We need four lights and twenty-six dark.
39:34Penny Otis inserts all the light and dark colored dice into the machine, then extracts them one by one.
39:48It's a black one.
39:49If a black die comes out, the row is removed.
39:54The first row is black. The names are not selected.
39:59The second one is a white one.
40:01But when it's a light colored die, the names in the row are chosen.
40:07Calikidis Agileos.
40:09Calikidis.
40:10And those five people are called upon to be future jurors.
40:14Come, come, come. Calikidis.
40:17Calikidis.
40:18Calikidis.
40:22Calikidis.
40:24So, she's the first selected.
40:28Vita Pavsanijas Lefronois.
40:32Calikidis.
40:43Calikidis.
40:44Prospatios.
40:52Nous avons achevé le tirage au sort.
40:57Tous les dés sont sortis.
40:59Nous avons sélectionné 20 jurés
41:02pour le tribunal populaire de la Cité démocratique d'Athènes.
41:07Congratulations.
41:14This is the first time that anybody's done this experiment
41:18the way it's been done here, as authentic as it is.
41:21Do you have any thoughts on it or any new perspectives on it?
41:23With experimental archaeology,
41:25you always see things you didn't think you were going to see,
41:28and other things that seem to be a problem aren't so bad.
41:32I have to say, this is where I put my faith in democracy,
41:36is in the courts.
41:37This shows how important it was to the Athenians
41:40not to be able to bribe the courts.
41:43What do you think it was about their culture
41:45that differs from ours?
41:47I think they were more engaged,
41:49and I think they liked to be participatory
41:51in terms of making things happen for Athens.
41:56Democracy is not election, which is what we think,
41:59and the ancients would laugh at us
42:01if we said that's a democratic society.
42:04What makes it democratic
42:05is the level of participation by everybody,
42:09and the fact that it's an allotment
42:11so that you can't put in people you want to put in
42:15by your own choice.
42:21For the ancient Greeks,
42:24true democracy only worked through random selection,
42:28where citizens voted on the laws
42:30for the people by the people,
42:33breaking free of the grip of the elites.
42:38But the world's first democracy didn't last.
42:43After nearly two centuries of existence,
42:46public frustration grew amid endless wars
42:49and internal strife.
42:51As trust in the system faded,
42:54corruption and chaos took over,
42:56leaving Athens too divided to defend itself
42:59from Alexander the Great
43:01and eventually the Romans,
43:03who dealt the final blow to Athenian democracy.
43:09It would take another 2,000 years
43:12for democracy to resurface in new forms,
43:15like the kind we practice in Canada today.
43:18Yet John Camp and others still study its origins,
43:23reminding us that Athenian democracy
43:25offers many lessons
43:26about power, corruption, and ambition
43:30that continue to resonate.
43:34The question is, will we listen?
43:38Will we listen?
44:00The question is, will we listen?
44:04Will we listen to the story?
44:04Will we listen to the narrative?
44:04Or will we listen to the narrative?
44:07is show the story forever.
44:07If any changes morning,
44:08Or a breakthrough there,
44:09There is also some angelic
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