The Paths Not Taken
The Paths Not Taken
This chapter deploys the available comparative and counterfactual evidence to show that, in the absence of the new constitution, Athens' development in the fourth century would have lagged. It discusses the comparative evidence from the Greek polis of Syracuse in Sicily and from Rome under the Republic. Rome and Syracuse experienced crises similar to that of Athens but responded in different ways. The chapter also counterfactually reconstructs Athens' developmental potential under an alternative constitutional option—namely, oligarchy. It identifies the commercial port of Piraeus as central to Athenian prosperity and it shows that, had Athens been ruled by an oligarchy, Piraeus' potential would not have been fully tapped. The chapter concludes that an oligarchic Athens would have looked a lot like a retrenched state with limited growth potential.
Keywords: constitution, Athens, Greek polis, Syracuse, Rome, oligarchy, Piraeus, retrenched state
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