Before Athens: Early Popular Government in Phoenician and Greek City States

Abstract

There is no question that Athens developed, named and refined democracy in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC but a number of scholars have pointed to evidence that suggests the ideas and institutions that constitute democracy had previously been tested in other Greek city states and even further afield, in the Middle East. This paper explores the political environment in the eastern Mediterranean in the 6th century and earlier to establish whether any Phoenician cities had their own form of democratic government and whether Phoenician trade into the Greek sphere might have contributed to democratic experiments in other polities before Athens.