Athens or Rome: which will it be?

By PHK

Could the January 2008 PBS Nova and Smithsonian Magazine features on the restoration of the Parthenon, the crown jewel of ancient Athens, also be seen as oh-so-subtle wake-up calls to Americans on the glory and the fragility of democracy? Or was this one-two punch about the painstaking restoration of the most important building of the world’s first democracy just a coincidence?

It could well be the latter. After all, the Smithsonian article appeared under Travel and the Nova program stressed the engineering feats more than the Parthenon’s significance to ancient Athenian civilization and democracy. Yet, one could not miss the democratic undertones as the archeologists described the importance of the restoration and showed why it is taking so long. This Herculean effort has been in progress for over 30 years – about a decade after I first stood on the Parthenon’s decaying marble floor.

Every so often people in the US, it seems to me, need to be reminded that democracy originated in Athens thousands of years ago, that this form of government is neither a God-given right nor an American invention and when it is broken, like the Parthenon, it is not easy to repair. The difficulties in reconstructing the Parthenon, sanctuary of the goddess Athena – Zeus’ favorite daughter and one of many deities in the ancient Greek pantheon - and the restoration of the temple’s fallen columns and crumbling floor serve in and of themselves as vivid displays of democracy’s fragility.

We need to remember that democratic government does not transfer easily elsewhere - without the right social foundations upon which to build it will surely wither and die. Democracy, of course, has nothing to do with belief in a higher deity or deities at all. It has everything to do with humanity right here on earth and how we as people govern our societies and relate to one another. A government of, for and by the people comes from the people. Furthermore, a democratic form of government – like all others – is no more immortal than we, who created it, are.

Democracy on autopilot will fail.

Americans also need to understand that democracy – our own included - cannot be put on autopilot and forgotten. This is a garden that requires constant tending or it could soon come to resemble Ancient Rome’s descent into autocracy, a slippery slide that began with a veneer of at least quasi-representative government.

Democracy foremost means sharing and placing limits on power. It is about elections and elected leaders who relinquish power when their terms end. It is also about a wise judiciary that serves to keep all people, the governors and the governed, honest.

Democracy means “throwing the rascals out” at regular intervals through fair and free elections. It also means an educated, informed, responsible, active and critical citizenry. Training in technical subjects, gaining basic literacy skills and passing multiple guess tests may be a small part of the equation - but far from all. A country’s wealth, we know now, is not a prerequisite either.

Working knowledge of history and politics – domestic and international, practical and academic – as well as understanding how to determine the leadership qualities that matter are required for citizens to choose their representatives wisely and monitor them with care.

The modern Greeks, today’s caretakers of that magnificent ruined marble temple on a hill that looks down
upon the bustling modern Athens, the capital city of the contemporary state, understand democracy’s frailties far better than we do. It was only in the mid-1970s that modern Greece entered its lengthiest period of democratic stability since the founding of the country in 1829. Before that, military coups and counter coups interrupted short periods of unstable democratic government throughout a troubled history.

Winston Churchill once said that “democracy was the worst form of government -- except all those others forms that have been tried from time to time.” What most Americans forget – or perhaps never knew - is the length of time for just the western world to democratize. As Niall Ferguson concluded in a recent oped in the FT, “As the British example makes clear, . . . (democracy) can (and probably must) be a very protracted process.”

The British took hundreds of years of intermittent warfare and disagreements to force King John to begin to yield power to a council of barons, relinquish absolute authority and “accept that his will could be bound by law.” This process started with the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 BC.

It wasn’t until centuries later – and after World War II’s end that France and Germany truly embraced democracy and developed unique power sharing systems that worked for them.

Americans too forget that one size, or model, doesn’t fit all and that “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Neither are democracies.

French, German and British democracies, like ours and others, are constantly being recalibrated to meet changing times and new conditions. The inherent shapes of these and other democratic governments differ from one another because their societies, geographies and histories upon which they are built are, in fact, quite unique.

Rome wasn't built in a day - but the Empire wasn't democratic either

The Romans adopted many of ancient Greece’s traditions, knowledge and superstitions including its pantheon. They gave the Greek deities Roman names: Athena, for instance, became Minerva. Greek was the administrative language of the Roman Empire in the East as the Roman Legions extended bits and pieces of Greco-Roman civilization further and further into Anatolia and the Mediterranean Sea became a Roman lake.

At home, however, the Roman Empire grew ever more autocratic. Laws and edicts from above did not translate into the delicately balanced Athenian city-state kind of democratic government and the Roman Empire’s sheer size outstripped the ability of a single ruler. Athens’ Delian League which had functioned as a consultative international city-state alliance with Athens at the core had long disappeared into the sea mist under the Roman form of rule. Alliance building among allies, citizens or subjects was not part of the Roman equation.

Certainly the construction feats that created the Parthenon, Athens’ greatest monument, in less than a decade capture the imagination. Yet, in the end, I think that this beautiful, but ruined temple to Athena needs to be remembered far more for what the society that built and paid for it once stood for than for the skills of its designers and competency of its engineers.

Photo credits: Top left: WJKushlis, Parthenon, 1981; right: PHKushlis, Parthenon from King George Hotel, 2006.

Comments

[Kenneth J. Dillon]

Democratic Athens soon turned the Delian League into the Athenian empire. It collected tribute, intervened to support democratic factions in its tributaries, crushed efforts to leave its coalition of the unwilling, engaged in self-congratulation, and pursued an aggressive foreign policy that led to military fiascoes in Egypt and Sicily and atrocities elsewhere. While the differences between classical Athens and the United States are palpable, the negative patterns of Athenian Imperial Democracy deserve our sober consideration.

[PhoenixRising]

Speaking of tending that garden, were you all going to make an endorsement in the Dem primary? Or are you leaving your fans to muddle it out as best we can?

Samantha Power, who I think is quite bright, is consulting for Obama. Hillary has Madeline Albright and I'm sure other advisers.

From a foreign policy perspective, it's tempting to say that it doesn't matter because a moldy block of cheddar would represent our national interest with more insight and wit than who we have now. And yet, the garden needs to be weeded and watered...