The Constitution of Athens

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Sources:
"The Athenian Constitution," by Aristotle: amzn.to/2C1mHLv
"Politics," by Aristotle: amzn.to/2AB6KPV
"Parallel Lives: The Life of Solon," by Plutarch: amzn.to/2AT5Viv
"The Constitution of the Athenians," by Pseudo-Xenophon: amzn.to/2z9rE6l
"The Rise of Athens," by Anthony Everitt: amzn.to/2C2ryMu
"The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes", by Mogens Herman Hansen: amzn.to/2AEAtYj
"Persian Fire," by Tom Holland: amzn.to/2AjLB8W
Music:
"Direct to Video," by Chris Zabriskie
"It's Always Too Late to Start Over," by Chris Zabriskie
"Mario Bava Sleeps In a Little Later Than He Expected To," by Chris Zabriskie
"Hallon," by Christian Bjoerklund
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

[@UDumFck]

Thumbs up due to the beautiful flowers @14:05! :)

[@feynstein1004]

Username checks out

[@alibryant8588]

Patreon saw it first

[@chadsknnr]

Agreed! I thank HC for his elucidation. I hope he eventually makes a presentation about the other Greek city-states, too. No one ever discusses them . . . .

[@amandacamilleri1239]

Udumfck h

[@ericsilver9401]

@@chadsknnr yo mama

[@feynstein1004]

Watching the video in 4K. You can really see how sharp the edges of the tiny squares are. 10/10

[@philherb0656]

At 60 frames a second you can see how fluent their movement is

[@ZachAgape]

dude xD we shouldn't have 4K on these types of videos, especially if it's to be watched on sub-4K screens… lots of pollution caused by these heavy data transfers.

[@LuizAlexPhoenix]

@Edgar Banuelos Delete System32

[@ZachAgape]

@Edgar Banuelos What do you mean sorry?😁 it's not an issue of ram, it's an issue of pollution, of energy consumption.

[@tada-kun982]

@@LuizAlexPhoenix @Zacharie Chiron prolly means that producing this simple style (with a lot of viewers maybe watching on phones for example) in 4K is a waste of energy

[@jasondoe2596]

It's worth mentioning that the "ostracised" person could keep all his property, and he and his family would suffer no other repercussions other than his forced physical absence from the city for 10 years. The goal was removal from the political life, not punishment of any sort. For the Athenians, it was inconceivable that a citizen would be physically present but not participate in politics - even implying that someone didn't want to engage in "the common" [public matters] would be a huge insult. The modern term "idiot" comes from their word "idiotes", meaning the person who only cares about his private matters.

[@ProfessorSyndicateFranklai]

Well then, in America, I could say we are a nation of 'idiotes'.

[@blugaledoh2669]

Eliott Afriat Lol

[@IkeOkerekeNews]

Francis Lai Wrong.

[@feartheghus]

Really though, in every single place where there is a group of humans the majority are idiots, and I dare say America has more people who are not idiots than many or even most other countries.

[@Weltall8000]

Most Americans do not participate in politics, even at the voting level. It would be apt say that most Americans would be idiots, going by this reasoning.

[@drewinsur7321]

last time i was this early the spartans could field 10.000 citizen soldiers.

[@hattiewhitson7736]

Drew Insur that’s a lot of squares

[@thoshinoshi]

@@hattiewhitson7736 or one really big one 🟥

[@tombomb1506]

2:23 "Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Basileus the greek?"

[@oWallis]

I am the King..

[@EpaminondastheGreat]

You are cute...

[@jophielswings]

I love you so much right now.

[@basileus1092]

"It's not a story a Turkish nationalist would tell."

[@666Templar666]

Salve, Cicero! I like your Avatar man. ;)

[@user-zp8ei6pi7p]

Only this man could get me to watch a full video about paperwork of a dead government over 2,000 year ago.

[@user-zx8cz8kq3l]

B We still have democracy.. what you mean dead?

[@user-zp8ei6pi7p]

1st off no we don't have a democracy we have a republics, but that aside I was talking specifically about the ancient government of Athens

Φώτης Γιαννακόπουλος we don’t have what Athens had anywhere in the world

[@bobby8012]

Who is "we" are you guys talking about America?

[@bagiee1]

"We"...as in every country in the world. No country in the world has Democracy today. Only One that comes close is Switzerland.

[@jacobhood5770]

The use of broken pottery is actually genius. It meant that no one could fake ballets, since their fake ballets wouldn’t fit back into the reassembled pot.

[@FlameQwert]

holy shit i didnt notice this

[@Rale881]

This comment has ruined the quest in Assassin's Creed Odyssey where the player character rigs an ostracism in Athens.

[@Michael-kd1ho]

A noteworthy person to have been ostracized was Themistocles, the victorious admiral in the battle of Salamis against the Persians - by quite a large concensus, the man responsible for saving Athens and Greece itself from becoming a satrapy of the Achemenid Empire. He grew very popular in the aftermath of the war, but was wildly hostile to Sparta, which also contributed to the assembly's vote - not only was Temistocles becoming too powerful and influential, he might also drag the city to war with the Laconians. Themistocles never returned to Athens - ironically, he wound up serving the Persian king Artaxerxes - the son of the Xerxes who invaded Greece and who's fleet Themistocles destroyed - as governor and high ranking official. He died in exile in Asia, aged 63.

[@MrAlexkyra]

It reminds me of Churchill being voted out of office before WW2 had ended, except that Churchill wasn't exiled from the UK for 10 years.

[@gnazlis]

@6:15 If a Citizen didn't participate on the assembly he was called an IDIOT which means "A Private Person" and was considered an idiot by his fellow citizens for allowing them to decide for him. The word IDIOT is still in use in modern Greek (ΙΔΙΟΤΗΣ) and has the same meaning without the negative connotation i.e. ΙΔΙΟΤΙΚΗ περιουσία = PRIVATE property

[@JamesSarantidis]

Is it true etymologically? If it is, I'm gonna use it in political debates. You are an Idiot, YOU are an Idiot. Everyone is an Idiot these days xD

[@DubyaDeeEight]

That makes the following quote by a contemporary Greek much more understandable - “those too smart to engage in politics are punished by being ruled by those dumber than them”

[@evannesbitt7852]

Well private property *is* idiotic in both senses of the word

[@daca8395]

@@evannesbitt7852 socialism with Athenian characteristics!

[@evannesbitt7852]

@@daca8395 if only

[@maxanette]

Thanks for making another video, I missed the squares.

[@forsrob94]

Nämen Hejsan tjänare, hur är livet?

[@maxanette]

Ja det går som det går. Hur e det själv?

[@forsrob94]

Nämen Hejsan meh, sku kunna va bättre

[@hattiewhitson7736]

Yeah, I love the little guys ▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️ ▫️▫️▫️▫️▫️

[@feartheghus]

that's racist, black and white squares? what about yellow, red, and brown squares? jk of course

[@Chrisxaxaxaxa]

As a greek it's weird to hear words like Βασιλεύς Στρατηγός and Βουλή with an English accent. Also we were taught this type of stuff (although not with so much detail) in school so this is a nice way of learning more. As always great video.

[@alphamikeomega5728]

I'm curious, presumably your teachers do the modern Greek pronunciation rather than the ancient/classical pronunciation? Or does it vary by teacher?

[@alphamikeomega5728]

DrIScream I thought that classical pronunciation included pronouncing β as b (not v), pronouncing "h" in words like "hellas", pronouning γ as g and υ as ü, as well as distinction between the sounds for ο and ω, and ι and ε, whereas Modern Greek is not pronounced like this.

[@akSeR2010]

AlphaMikeOmega You are right. The pronunciation has changed significantly over the centuries. But don't assume that in classical Greece there was a standard greek language for all Greeks, like there is today. There were many different accents, each one with their own distinct pronunciations of words. The current type of Greek language, called "demotike" is the continuation of classical attic Greek but shares the most simmilarities with "koine". The Greek type of language that was spoken in the Hellenistic eastern kingdoms. So the great grandfather is classical attic Greek, which would not be understood by current speakers, as it is fairly different in pronunciation. The grandfather is simplified Koine, which starts to resemble modern pronunciation. The father is medieval byzantine Greek. The child is demotike, which is spoken today.

[@akSeR2010]

Junius Argonon Well yes I'm Greek. And you are actually right. There are some distinct dialects such as Pontic, Cretan, Cypriot even today. But there is a difference. Most Cretans and certainly all Pontians can speak the standard Greek fairly well and they only speak their distinct accent (if they actually speak it at all) for cultural reasons between themselves. But that's not what I wanted to say in my previous comment. I actually wanted to talk about the false assumption that classical Greek of antiquity has the same pronunciation as today's standard Greek.

[@akSeR2010]

Junius Argonon Well it would amaze you how many Greeks unfortunately believe this. The truth is that 70% of our vocabulary comes directly from ancient greek. But that has lead to the misconception that because these are the same words, They must have been pronounced back then the same as they do today. So this is the reason behind my original comment. Take care.

[@mrid5850]

This channel does a great job in making history accessible. I already love history, but often don't have the time to scroll through many many documents and then make a coherent story. You are absolutely great at this, it is often quite difficult to make history seem coherent and simple because it often isn't. Good job! Keep up the good work!

[@kenichi-bk6bz]

mr id k

[@TheGerogero]

Telling a story around history is a double-edged sword. Memorable, accessible, sure. Vulnerable to your own biases? Also that.

[@nobodybroda3826]

@@TheGerogero true but history is biased by the tellers of the time and nowadays. You will read a textbook and it shall be biased, even slightly

[@MichalisFamelis]

I'd love a similar one on the Old Swiss Confederacy.

[@Ptaku93]

Yessssss

[@palatasikuntheyoutubecomme2046]

The comment is 69 likes

[@faithlessgr]

Solon's legislative reforms that laid the foundations for Athenean Democracy were not just an answer to the infighting of the oligarchs. You make it sound as if a member of the oligarchs willingly gave away power to the poor Athenean masses. Solon's reforms came about as a result of the growing unrest and rioting of the Athenean population against the Oligarchs. In other Greek city-states this conflict resulted in the establishment of tyrannies as a means for the aristocrates to maintain their rule. In Athens it was resolved with Solon's reforms which would compromise some of thar power and would introduce certain rights and political involvement to the masses.

[@PierroCh5]

Sounds familiar...

[@mYnAME-ww9iv]

@@PierroCh5 if you're implying our age of western democracies then you're wrong because they're based off of Roman style of democracy. Under Athenian democracy, poor, even if held little influence because of the rigged system, still voted for or against a lot of the issues DIRECTLY, not through representative. People didn't organize the governing bodies but voted directly and elections were held at random. Roman democracy on the other hand was heavily influenced by money and was made up of representatives who were supposed to represent their constituents but had their own interests. Still considering the technology back at the time, you couldn't have a full scale Athenian direct democracy on a scale of whole Roman Empire or even inside the walls of Rome itself because of how huge they were. And although today it's very much possible some rich oligarchs wouldn't be happy...

[@user-lh1wr9sr8m]

@@mYnAME-ww9iv Roman Democracy, or more succinctly the Roman Republic, was similar to Athenian democracy directly after the reforms of Solon. That is, while all Roman citizens did have some modicum of rights and power, the big decisions, and most of the power, were intended for the aristocracy & very wealthy, with the poor serving only as a 'tie-breaker' to prevent gridlock. Like this video suggests, basically a form of diffuse oligarchy, or perhaps an 'aristocratic republic'. If we were to continue the comparison, we might say that Julius Caesar was a Roman Peisistratos who was infinitely more charismatic, militarily skilled (pretty important), & politically populist. Still, I don't think the comparison is altogether helpful on a superficial level, and, for my part, I'm not suggesting Peisistratos was necessarily a dullard, or that their positions within their respective societies were altogether the same.

[@oWallis]

Those Ancient Athenians should feel proud. Imitation is the highest form of flattery.

[@ericforeman9401]

oWallis too bad greece is an economic failure

[@jdoc3118]

Too bad they would pity us.Democracy nowdays means Mob drama

[@hjorturerlend]

Uh, who has imitated them? There is hardly a single country with any democratic institutions. We use elections - elections are anti-democratic, it´s an inherently aristocratic system. Random selection is the basis of democracy, not elections. Read Aristotle. We copy the Roman system, and there is a really good (actually really bad...) reason for that :P "Parliamentary democracy" and "democratic republic" are oxymorons, a contradiction hidden in plain sight. Plutocratic oligarchy is the correct term for modern government. PS: Jury duty is propably the only democratic institution today, but it is compromised by having judges.

[@merrittanimation7721]

Kawaiiser-Genosse Wilhelm II von Hohenzollern Calling modern governments oligarchies is a bit of a stretch. Look at the Venetian Republic for something more on that line.

[@CarlosHernandez-wy3gu]

*sincerest

[@THEJaManes]

18:45 Where is Sicily?

[@jasondoe2596]

Gone for a walk :P

[@geographynerd1295]

Out of the frame. It’s too far out to see in this view.

[@theswedishdude1]

obviously the boot kicked it away

[@moonknightish]

And Sardinia. And Corsica.

[@legionxiii8055]

Sorry dude. Sicily's just been ostracised.

[@sgtleobella]

That beat at the beginning of the video was pretty dope

[@kenichi-bk6bz]

Paul Casey y

[@Macieks300]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/kGOcXqRsa6dkl6M

[@loldiamond1017]

Macieks300 thanks!

[@Strideo1]

It was pretty cool of John Carpenter to do the soundtrack for this episode.

[@astroboirap]

the music is shit

[@independentomega2701]

I'm etching your name +astroboirap onto a piece of pottery. You're gonna get ostracized! Need 5999 more likes! LET'S GOOOOO!

[@RoboBoddicker]

the new music ruled. astroboirap has no place in athens

[@steamonkey9927]

astroboirap Says the dude getting more dislikes than likes on all of his 'songs'

[@astroboirap]

SteaMonkey Alexander the Great wasn't popular either

[@all7ofthem716]

This channel is my favourite thing to see in notifications. I legitimately get excited.

[@MarkedOne98]

A few comments by a native Greek speaker on the pronunciations: 1:23 "Areopagus = Arios Pagos" Pagos is an ancient Greek word for rock. It's basically a huge rocky hill situated near the Acropolis of Athens. Today the supreme court of Greece is called Arios Pagos. 2:10 "Basileus = Vasilefs". 2:35 "Polemarch = Polemarchos". 6:37 "Boule = Vouli" You've probably heard of it if you follow Greek politics. The word is still used today for the Hellenic Parliament 11:45 The 10 tribes were named after 10 mythological heroes, selected by the Oracle at Delphi. For anyone interested, they were: Erechtheis , Aigeis , Pandionis , Leontis , Akamantis , Oineis , Kekropis , Hippothontis , Aiantis (10 points if you know who the name refers to ) and lastly Antiochis. 13:40 "Prytaneis = Pritanis" The word is still used today, mostly for the head of a university. 17:05 Ostrakismos or Eksostrakismos (out + ostrascism). Historians have found roughly 10,500 pieces of pottery with names written on them. Plutarch wrote that on 482 B.C a man that didn't know how to write, asked a random person to write on his ostrakon the name Aristides (the Just). Unbeknownst to him that man was Aristides himself. Aristides asked him " What has Aristides done to you". "Nothing" the man replied, "but I'm tired of hearing everyone calling him Just". Upon hearing that, Aristides wrote his name on the Ostrakon and returned it to the man.

[@jcavs9847]

You're using the modern pronunciation of greek though. In ancient greek it would probably be closer to his pronunciation, since "β" sounded like "b" and not "v", "η" sounded like the italian "è" among other things

[@hackerulroman]

That last story about Aristides is so deep omg

[@oWallis]

Perfect, I was just wondering what I was going to watch while eating dinner. Another masterpiece my dude

[@EcuadorianFlagShip]

oWallis check /r/mealtimevideos if you can. It was made for people like you and me.

[@joecopley5462]

Ancient History student here and I just spent this term studying this exact topic. This video is a perfect summery of what I studied. This will be helpful later down the line when it comes to revise for the exam period. Thank you very much Historia Civilis; amazing and informative content as always!

[@dsnodgrass4843]

Great video! An underappreciated part of Solon's genius (and democracy's genius) was that a tremendous lot of new people not only got a measure of power; but with it a commensurate *stake* in the well-being and success of the nation-state. No monarchy or despotism can avail itself of so much freely given effort; born of the citizen's identifying the health of the state with his/her own so closely. This shouldn't be forgotten.

[@darkmater4tm]

One of my favourite factoids about ancient Athens is that it was legal to kill a tyrant. If anyone held onto power after their term, a random citizen could kill him on some opportunity, and they wouldn't be accused of something.

[@UnintentionalSubmarine]

Well, this was illuminating. I knew of the Athenian Democracy before, and understood some of the peculiarities, but this was more complex than I had expected, with more thought put into it than I had realised. I guess I was a bit coloured by the story of the ostracism of Aristides, which made the Athenian Democracy seem so chaotic and foolish.

[@jeeshadow1]

Athens gets that reputation I think in part because a lot of the people who wrote about Athenian government were opponents of it. The Philosophers like Socrates were never fans of Athenian democracy, and Thucydides had been exiled from the city and was not a fan of the more populist leaders. There are some legitimate examples of Athens making really bad decisions (looking at ordering an entire city killed for an insult or prosecuting all their admirals because they tried to save drowning sailors instead of perusing the enemy) but I think all democratic governments make idiotic decisions at times! Authoritarian governments also tend to have terrible rulers at times, just with democracy there are release valves were as you are stuck with terrible authoritarian leaders for years!

[@AbbeyRoadkill1]

@@jeeshadow1 There's nothing that discredits a political system like losing a really big, important war. In the centuries following Athens' defeat in the Peloponnesian war almost every historian/author treated democracy with scorn and derision. It helps explain why it took so long for democracy to get political traction again.

[@DarklordZagarna]

@@AbbeyRoadkill1 And part of the distortion was that the importance of that war was itself overrated, probably due to Thucydides and Xenophon, who each had a habit of exaggerating the importance of certain things in order to make a point. Truth: the oligarchic government of Athens installed after the war was gone in less than a year; the broad naval-based Athenian Empire was largely restored in a generation; the city once again surpassed Sparta in military importance after Leuctra, where the Thebans exposed the Spartan army as a paper tiger; and it was Macedon, not Sparta, that really brought down the democratic government as an independent force.

[@lopez.jacinto.6726]

@@DarklordZagarna 👏👏👏👏👏 Pretty well explained.

[@Mnnvint]

@@jeeshadow1 If you're talking about the battle of Arginusae, it was the other way around. They prosecuted the generals because they had failed to save drowning sailors, and that was especially infuriating to the public because of the political undertones (the sailors would have been mostly from the lower economic class).

[@iamseamonkey6688]

18:45 I see Sicily has been ostracized from Europe

[@themi0598]

Lmao

[@lucae.pellegrino3734]

Sardinia and Corsica too

[@carlosrobertson6124]

I teach history to high school students in Spain (I'm American) and have been using your videos with my history buff kids. keep it up dude!

[@rafafr9]

O Just love when the ending song plays after a small pause, It is so satisfying

[@austinmonreal2331]

Last time I was this early the Romans had just thrown out their king!

[@kalil2669]

No more macedonians :(

[@papatingle9964]

Good video, I do want to note however that it's very common yet anachronistic to call Athens under Solon's reforms a "democracy". He laid a good foundation for Cleisthenes to build a democracy upon by removing debt-slavery and allowing all citizens to participate in the Ekklesia (along with some other less important reforms), but Athens under Solon wasn't democratic, it was timocratic and Solon didn't intend to do his reforms so that later someone could "finish" them and bring forth democracy or something, the idea of complete equality wasn't something he seeked.

[@Bravco509]

You did an amazing job. I'm reading Plutarch and Aristotle right now. But you clarified/simplified everything so well. Your channel deserves support.

[@ChevyChase301]

Are you ever gonna go back to the Caesar-Pompey War?

[@fivesincarnate630]

Joey Kevorkian “I will make a video deconstructing the words “Caesar crossed the Rubicon.” I believe that is how it was said.

[@katherine7802]

please daddy civilis

[@LC-fe2pb]

Joey Kevorkian most likely he will

[@sarasamaletdin4574]

Maybe he does Greek stuff until Alexander series is finished.

[@MrHoeBow]

FivesIncarnate The phrase he said he'd dissect was "Caesar marched on Rome," I believe.

[@weaselontheclock6695]

Sicily is missing from that map at then end. Love the content, honestly my favorite channel

[@ravimattar]

AMAZING video, as always. When the end song starts and the Historia Civilis logo comes at the end, I can't help but form a smile on my face in every video. Never change my dude, cheers.

[@psammiad]

Excellent video. Even studying classics I struggled to get my head around Athenean democracy, this gives a really good picture of how it worked and evolved over time.

[@jordanrenkert4176]

I am so stoked! Thank you for submitting another fantastic video before the new year!

[@colemanadamson5943]

Historia Civilis - You do a fantastic job of explaining history. Your voice has a very pleasant quality and your delivery is excellent. Plus your captions are quite funny as well. Thank you for all your work.

[@LC-fe2pb]

I'm a simple man, I see a historia civilis video I click

[@danukil7703]

I like

[@zamzamazawarma928]

Mmmm where did I read this before?

[@pjrt_tv]

I like before the video load.

[@rachilray]

Hey reddit! XD super funny comment! Le upboat!

[@michaelmcghee6594]

Thank You for Uploading this!!! I love the analyses of the different Greek States and just after my pretty awful finals week, it cheered me up thank you!!

[@adhddaila-lama117]

It always is a pretty long wait for the next video. (I understand because it's a lot of research) But when there finally is one I genuinely can't wait to see it. I just watched this one in the train, I never watch KZbin in the train. So sir, you may take this as a compliment! Thank u very much for doing what you do!

[@granddukeofflario8018]

Historia Civilis: Transforming Athens from a limited democracy to a full democracy. *Socrates has left the chat*

[@alexmemster5816]

American patriotism has joined the chat.

[@palatasikuntheyoutubecomme2046]

Its weird that most philosophers were skeptical of democracy *Jasjdwero*

[@TheBrickMasterB]

@@palatasikuntheyoutubecomme2046 It's because most philosophers were either wealthy or disliked other people, and subsequently disliked the idea of "uneducated commoners" having any say on matters deemed too important for them.

[@OkurkaBinLadin]

@@alexmemster5816 USA is a republic, not "full democracy", you simp.

[@OkurkaBinLadin]

@@TheBrickMasterB They were proven right.

[@MrSashoks]

Man your stuff is amazing your presentation of the material is always on point my attention is 100% on the video, I'd find it really interesting to learn how you make your research and put the whole thing together.

[@nahman6790]

I've been waiting for this video, I Just binged *all* your videos. I went back to the home page, and i couldn't believe my own luck, another Historia Civilis video. 10/10 Best channel on YT.

[@Wallyworld30]

So glad you uploaded again. This is my favorite channel. Please keep up your great work!

[@jackjohn1255]

YOU'RE BACK! I missed you...

[@ArttuH5N1]

Basileus was also the title of the Byzantine (Roman) Emperor at some point IIRC E: Hold up, strategoi also was a name ERE used

[@aqui1ifer]

Heraclius reformed Roman administration to use Greek during the end of his tenure due to most of the Latin speaking parts of the empire being depopulated/conquered by Lombards, Slavs or Arabs.

[@Aricade111]

Your content should be on the front page! The videos are both informative and interesting. I cannot recommend them enough.

[@DSR115]

So glad to see enough video from Historia Civilis.

[@airjamy]

Love these constitution videos, wondering if you might also do less well known states, like the Florintian constitution, or to take a more modern example, the constitution of the Weimar republic?

[@hognigk96]

My man got some sick new intro-beats

[@mypony891]

Excellent as usual. Very informative and easy to understand. Love the way you break it down. Keep it up.

[@bucsa4]

Keep up the good work. I have been missing new videos from you. Don’t stop

[@mandez3498]

man today’s been amazing. shoes I ordered finally came, new update for Payday 2 and a vid from Historia Civilis

[@Watheverable]

Mandez Siow same here,but what arrived was my Hail Caesar miniatures not shoes 😄

[@eop771]

Thank you for uploading!

[@QamarTubeTV]

Dude, I love what you do and your videos are awesome.I watched every single one of them.Please make some more!!!

[@sh3940]

This is my favorite youtube channel, by far. Thanks for the amazing videos!

[@Imperator-Carolus]

Thank God, I've scoured youtube and this is the first video to go over the Athenian system in detail.

[@merrittanimation7721]

Carolus Augustus Woo-hoo!

[@SquidBox1]

freaking love this boy

[@robertwatts7894]

I live for your videos they may take a while to come out sometimes but they always shine with quality keep doing what you're doing!

[@vinodvarghese78]

It's been a while since the last upload. I was wondering and looking forward to your latest upload. Good one. Thanks!

[@charleslambert3368]

It'd be interesting to go into more depth on the way that Hellenic culture spread, especially via the Etruscans to Rome.

[@M_Chen333]

11:21 That spinning square looks hilarious.

[@iamseamonkey6688]

That's a Sentence that, while it makes perfect sense In this context, I never expected to hear. Take my like

[@morimemento8351]

awesome to see that a new video was uploaded. dude your a genius.Cheers

[@ZachAgape]

that vid & the constitution of Spartans vid were both really well made, well done!

[@80ki68]

"Congratulations, my dude/fellow politician! They just elected you mayor!" "Uh... greeeaaaat..." "... of ancient Athens!" "Wait what?! WOOOOOOO!!!"

[@BougieKoala]

HANDS UP FOR THE MOST HECTIC OUTRO MUSIC EVER!!

[@josetorres3355]

OMG I get so full of dopamine when you upload a video. Thank you!

[@VoidRDM]

Keep 'em coming HC, we love your videos

[@Pyrus425]

2:56 POWER OVERWHELMING

[@DoctuhD]

18:50 Where is Sicily?!?!? It's gone :o

[@StoicFC]

This is my favorite KZbin channel of all time. I stop anything I'm doing to watch new uploads

[@Alobster1]

One of the few channels I stop everything I am doing to watch. Always quality content.

[@haraldbonner7649]

When are you going to make a video on Caesars march on Rome?

[@franzluggin398]

*rolls dice*

[@YAH2121]

At his rate, Summer 2019 sounds about right.

[@damiensimmons2504]

YAH21 it’s summer 2019

[@ISawABear]

So... Thessaly next?

[@Tom-nh9xf]

Your videos are absolutely fantastic please make more (if you can) !

[@tobystewart4403]

Very impressive work on this channel. Amongst the best on KZbin.

[@uguralpbitikcioglu2336]

what happened to sicily????

[@martijndebaets6815]

Alp Ugur It got deleted by the Gods xD

[@farawaywayfarer7685]

and sardegna and corse XD

[@13Luk6iul]

The spartans took it from Athens! :)

[@talknight2]

FarawayWayfarer it's Sardinia in English

[@YAH2121]

It was ostracized

[@GerackSerack]

Give poor Draco some love too! Without his previous reforms, Solon couldn't have done much.

[@jasondoe2596]

And Cleisthenes, nicknamed "the father of democracy", who was behind most of the later reforms presented in the video. He should have been mentioned by name :(

[@kristoforperkola6923]

He was a bit too Draconian for my tastes.

[@brotherbarnaby4464]

*Buh dum tish.

[@yarpen26]

@@jasondoe2596 Back in school, textbooks would always talk of "the reforms by Solon _and_ Cleisthenes".

[@jasondoe2596]

yarpen26, yeap!

[@tldl59]

Keep up the good work man, I always watch your videos as soon as they show on my news feed

[@iadros10]

Great vid as always! Thank you for your work!

[@ColtKiller818]

The problem with democracy is that people get a say.

[@markspringsvlogs8790]

"Deme names are where it's at!" -Some old Athenian

[@VeronicaVance1212]

I LOVE your videos man, it always makes my day when I see you posted.

[@intoxicary]

My favorite History channel on youtube. You kick ass bro.

[@bruh-vr5um]

Can u please do a video on when the Romans invaded Briton in 52 AD (I think that's the year) cheers

[@Paulo-py4mm]

Please do a video on caesars pall labienus

[@schneiderwebb2303]

Paul Aldrich I could go for that

[@MikeGuarino69]

I believe Paul Benis was responsible for Kill Butt 2: 2

[@Lmaluko]

This channel is awesome. I love these snipets of history.

[@ep9335]

Love the videos, they are the kind of thing that got me into classics

[@ThomasSorensen1]

Man this is great. To think about these people who lived tougher & more foreign lives than many of us can even imagine and how a small group of them decided to come together and stake everything on this idea of democracy, that people can decide for themselves in a civilized manner. It's a choice to live that way, with accompanying difficulties & rewards. Despite the difficulties these Greek people went to great lengths to defend & improve their democracy and look what a mark their efforts left.

[@VladTevez]

In modern Greek "Boule" was the word chosen to translate "Parliament"

[@stevied3400]

V. Athanasiou I took Ancient Greek in college and I learned βουλή as meaning “counsel”, “will”, “determination”, or “Senate”. All of those translations make sense given the nature/job of the ancient boule and modern Parliament.

[@user-cl2jk2nr1d]

Definitely sharing this to my friends!

[@donnyfish1810]

Seeing a new video made my day

[@nathanaelsallhageriksson1719]

WHAT!? Your map in the end is without sicily!?!? Com on dude. :-)

[@johnfake7375]

Finally!!!!

[@CageyChunk47]

Thank you so much for this video! I loved it!

[@robmann101]

Keep up the great content! I really enjoy your work

[@Archangelm127]

I think it worth mentioning the eventual downsides of the Athenian system, which can be slightly oversimplified into "mob rule." The citizens liked naval campaigns, because both shipbuilding and naval service brought money, so they kept pushing Athens into war whether it was prudent or not. This eventually led the Aegean area to regard Athens as a bully. There's much more to it than that, but that's the very short version. My point is that there's both an upside and a downside to almost anything. :)

[@robertjarman3703]

That's possible, but there are some important safeguards we could adopt in a modern version. Today, we have something called Westphalian Sovereignty, meaning that the internal matters of another state are for it alone to decide provided that they respect their citizens' basic rights. A war may only be declared by another nation's aggression. Combined with rules related to conflicts of interest, transparency, and ownership over the means of building weapons and military equipment, and strict civilian control over any armed forces, defensive or not, no matter if they are without a ruling class or not, as well as complex trade networks that depend on international and collective cooperation, that works quite well. As for mobs, you can prevent that with having multiple centres of power beyond just the one assembly. Require broader consensus than just 50%+1. Create a charter of rights that cannot be repealed or amended to remove clauses, and make that charter very broad. Sortition as a means of political power includes the minority in a way that democracy today doesn't. And so on.

[@gameer0037]

It‘s so sad, that we don‘t have a single „full democraty“ today. Here in Switzerland we get near to arhens but system isn‘t perfect (yet). And America, France, Germany and so on have have no direct democracy. = no democracy

[@codekillerz5392]

Direct democracy leads to mob rule

[@gameer0037]

CodeKillerz Yes, and that is sad too

[@decem_sagittae]

thank you for making all these vids

[@philobrain]

You make some of the legitimately best content on youtube.