Citizens or Subjects? Two Ancient Gree Pathways out of Social Crisis

Josiah Ober 
Stanford University
2025 Balzan Prize for Classics: Athenian Democracy Revisited

Abstract

Two Ancient Greek Pathways out of Social Crisis Herodotus’ account of how Deioces became the absolute ruler of the Medes and Ps-Aristotle and Plutarch’s account of Solon’s arbitration at Athens present striking similarities and key differences. Together they illuminate Greek conceptions of how social crisis drives political development, and how autocratic and citizen-centered regimes come about and are sustained.