Aspects of the Athenian Democracy in the Fourth Century B.C.

In June 2012 a conference about Athenian democracy in the fourth century B.C. was held at the Humboldt University in Berlin. The conference was organised by Claudia Tiersch, professor of ancient history at the Humboldt University. She invited 19 distinguished scholars to speak about various aspects of society, economy and political institutions in Athens in the period 403 to 322. Revised versions of the contributions were published in November 2016 with the title: Die Athenische Demokratie im 4. Jahrhundert. Zwischen Modernisierung und Tradition. The present book contains an assessment of, and comments on, Tiersch's introduction and the nineteen contributions. The basic sources have been reexamined and they have often been supplemented with other relevant sources and reflections. Naturally, the subjects of the 20 studies in the conference report do not form an exhaustive description of Athenian democracy. In the final chapter, Mogens Herman Hansen suggests a number of additional topics that might be treated on future conferences on Athenian democracy in the fourth century B.C.