European and Pre-1800: The Ideal State: History of Classical Political and Constitutional Thought (V57.0538) Department of History, New York University Benjamin Straumann Spring, 2009 TR, 11-12:15 (Syllabus still tentative, look to Blackboard for updates!) Course description: This course examines one of the most important contributions of Greco-Roman antiquity to the western tradition. Athens, Rome, and Sparta and the political ideas they engendered have exercised a crucial impact on Western history, both in the realm of political thought and in the realm of events and institutions. It is the aim of the course to trace the history of ancient political thought and to relate it to its proper institutional context. Some of the ideas and institutions we will be studying merit attention simply by virtue of their independent interest and value and because of the fact that they will allow us to take a step back and look from a distance, as it were, at what we take to be selfevident presuppositions of our own thinking. Most of those ideas and institutions, however, have a claim to our attention by virtue of the extraordinary influence they have had in the course of history. The course will survey Greek and Roman political and constitutional thought in its historical context from some of the Pre-Socratics to the Roman Empire. In the final two weeks, we will try and gauge the contribution of these traditions to early modern and modern political and legal thought. Course requirements: Regular attendance is important. While the course will be based to a large extent on lecturing, questions and discussion are welcomed and students may be quizzed about the reading. In addition to completing all readings and attending lectures, students are required to write two papers, one in each half of the course. Students may choose from several assignments on four possible dates; instructions and assignments are listed at the end of this syllabus. (Students may choose to write more than two papers, in which case the highest two grades will be counted.) Deadlines are firm, and papers must be handed in at the end of class on the relevant due dates; no credit will be given for late papers. Mid-term and final examinations will consist of essay and short questions, with responses to be based on the content of both readings and lectures. The grade break-down is as follows: two papers, 30% each; final exam, 40%. Students must complete all papers and exams in order to receive a passing grade for the course. Instructor’s Office, Office Hours, Telephone, Email: Instructor: Benjamin Straumann Office: Room 423, KJCC, 53 Washington Square South

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Office hours: Tuesdays, 1:30-2:30, or by appointment Telephone: (Office) 212-992-9519 E-mail: [email protected] Teaching assistants: Reynolds Richter ([email protected]) Nanako Sawayanagi ([email protected]) Readings: Available in the bookstore (titles with asterisk required): ∗Aristotle, The Politics and the Constitution of Athens (Cambridge: CUP, 1996). ∗Cicero, On the Commonwealth and On the Laws (Cambridge: CUP, 1999). Janet Coleman, A History of Political Thought From Ancient Greece to Early Christianity (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000). Andrew Lintott, The Constitution of the Roman Republic (Oxford: OUP, 1999). ∗J. M. Moore, Aristotle and Xenophon on Democracy and Oligarchy (Berkeley, CA: UC Press, 1975). ∗Plato, The Republic (Cambridge: CUP, 2000). Jennifer Tolbert Roberts, Athens on Trial. The Antidemocratic Tradition in Western Thought (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994). David Stockton, The Classical Athenian Democracy (New York: OUP, 1990). Neal Wood, Cicero’s Social and Political Thought (Berkeley, 1988). On reserve/chapter copies available: Ernest Barker, The Political Thought of Plato and Aristotle (New York: Dover Publications, 1959). Janet Coleman, A History of Political Thought From Ancient Greece to Early Christianity (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000). M. Hammond, City-State and World State in Greek and Roman Political Theory until Augustus (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1951). Donald Kagan, The Great Dialogue. History of Greek Political Thought from Homer to Polybius (New York: Free Press, 1965). C. J. Rowe/M. Schofield, The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Political Thought (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000). T. A. Sinclair, A History of Greek Political Thought (London, 1951).

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Class schedule: Week 1:

The Object of Political Thought: State, polis, res publica

Jan. 20

The “ideal state” vs. actual states; the problem of utopianism Reading: Thomas Nagel, Equality and Partiality (New York: OUP, 1991), chap. 3

Jan. 22

The emergence of the citizen-state and the growth of political thought Reading: Homer, Iliad 1.45-309; 2.48-380; 9.478ff.; Odyssey, 9.105-139, available online at: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgibin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134;layout=;loc=1.1;query= toc, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgibin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136&query=book%3D%23 9&chunk=book Hesiod, Works and Days, lines 11-41; 213-285, available online at: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgibin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0132 Rowe/Schofield, The Cambridge History, chap. 1 (Cartledge) Kagan, Great Dialogue, chap. 1 A. M. Snodgrass, Archaic Greece: The Age of Experiment (Berkeley, 1980), chap. 3

Week 2:

Law-Givers and Constitutional Forms

Jan. 27

Reformers, good and bad Reading: Plutarch, Solon, 14-25 Aristotle, Politics 1273b27-1274a21 Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, 5-13 (=Moore, pp. 150-157) Sinclair, Greek Political Thought, chap. 2 Kagan, Great Dialogue, chap. 2

Jan. 29

Constitutional forms; the Spartan constitution Reading: Herodotus 3.80-82 (=Moore, pp. 135-137) Aristotle, Politics 1269a29-1272b Plutarch, Life of Lykourgos 5-29 Xenophon, Constitution of the Spartans (=Moore, pp. 67-121)

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Kagan, Great Dialogue, chap. 4 Week 3:

Athenian Democracy

Feb. 3

The historical development of the democratic constitution Reading: Thucydides 8.67-70 Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, 1-41 (=Moore, pp. 147-183) Stockton, Classical Athenian Democracy, chap. 2 Ostwald, From Popular Sovereignty to the Sovereignty of the Law (Berkeley, 1986), pp. 125-128, 369-379.

Feb. 5

Athenian democracy: ideas and institutions Reading: Thucydides 2.34-46 Ps.-Xenophon, Constitution of the Athenians (=Moore, pp. 37-47) Aristotle, Athenian Constitution, 42-69 (=Moore, pp. 183-207) Stockton, Classical Athenian Democracy, chap. 3 K. Raaflaub, “Contemporary Perceptions of Democracy in Fifth-Century Athens,” Classica et Medievalia 40 (1989): 33-70.

Week 4:

The Sophists

Feb. 10

“Left-wing” and moderate sophists Reading: Plato, Protagoras, 320c-322d Aristotle, Politics 1280b8 Eric Havelock, The Liberal Temper in Greek Politics, chap. 7 Kagan, Great Dialogue, chap. 5 Assignment 1 due

Feb. 12

“Right-wing” sophists Reading: Plato, Gorgias, 482cff. Plato, Republic, bk. 1 Thucydides 5.84ff. Kagan, Great Dialogue, chap. 7

Week 5:

Plato

Feb. 17

Plato’s criticism of democracy

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Reading: Plato, Protagoras, 319dff. Plato, Statesman, 291c-303d Plato, Republic, bk. 8 Coleman, A History of Political Thought, chap. 3 Josiah Ober, Political Dissent in Democratic Athens, chap. 4 Roberts, Athens on Trial, chap. 4 Feb. 19

Plato’s ideal state Reading: Plato, Republic, bk. 5 Plato, Laws, bk. 3 Kagan, Great Dialogue, chap. 9 Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies, I

Week 6:

Aristotle

Feb. 24

Aristotle’s criticism of Plato and of existing constitutions Reading: Aristotle, Politics, bks. 2-3 (esp. chaps. 5-6), 6 Coleman, A History of Political Thought, chap. 4 Barker, Political Thought, chap. 11 Ober, Political Dissent, chap. 6

Feb. 26

Aristotle’s best state Reading: Aristotle, Politics, bks. 7-8 Sinclair, Greek Political Thought, chap. 11 Eric Havelock, The Liberal Temper in Greek Politics, chap. 12. Barker, Political Thought, chap. 10

Week 7:

Post-Classical Political Thought

March 3

Hellenistic monarchies Reading: Xenophon, Kyropaidia Isocrates, To Nicocles Sinclair, Greek Political Thought, chap. 12 M. Hammond, City-State and World State, chaps. 3-4 Assignment 2 due

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March 5

Cosmopolitanism and natural law Reading: Diogenes Laertius, 7.32f. LS 67 L Cicero, Laws, 1.17-35, 2.8-14 Cicero, Republic, bk. 3 P. Vander Waerdt, “Zeno’s Republic and the Origins of Natural Law” Kagan, Great Dialogue, chap. 11 G. J. Aalder, Political Thought in Hellenistic Times

Week 8:

The Constitution of the Roman Republic

March 10

History of the Roman republican constitution Reading: Pomponius,Enchiridion, Digest 1.2.2 Cicero, Republic, bk. 2.1-66 Lintott, Constitution, chaps. 3-4 Millar, The Roman Republic in Political Thought, chap. 2

March 12

Ideas and institutions; was the Roman constitution mixed? Reading: Polybius, bk. 6 Cicero, Republic, bk. 1.31-71 Lintott, Constitution, chaps. 5-7

Week 9:

Roman Political Thought

March 24

In what sense did the Romans have a constitution? Reading: Cicero, Republic, 1.69 Cicero, On the Laws, bk. 3 Cicero, On the Manilian Law Coleman, A History of Political Thought, chap. 5 C. H. McIlwain, Constitutionalism Ancient and Modern, chap. 3 K. von Fritz, The Theory of the Mixed Constitution in Antiquity, chap. 7

March 26

Cicero’s political thought and the mixed constitution Reading: Cicero, Republic, 1.38-71 Cicero, On Duties, 3.7-39

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Hammond, City-State and World State, chaps. 8, 10 Wood, Cicero’s Social and Political Thought, chaps. 4, 7, 9 Week 10:

The Roman Constitution in Crisis

March 31

Popular challenges from the Gracchi onwards Reading: Cicero, First Catilinarian Oration, lines 28-54 Sallust, Bellum Catilinae, 51-54 Lintott, Violence in Republican Rome, chaps. 11-12 Hammond, City-State and World State, chaps. 7, 9 Assignment 3 due

April 2

From Republic to Principate Reading: Cicero, On the Manilian Law; Phil. 11 Augustus, Res Gestae Hammond, City-State and World State, chap. 11 Chaim Wirszubski, Libertas, chaps. 3-5 Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution

Week 11:

The Roman Empire

April 7

A just empire? Reading: Cicero, Republic, bk. 3 Cicero, On the Manilian Law, 65 Cicero, Second Speech Against Verres Tacitus, Agricola, 30, 5f. R. MacMullen, Enemies of the Roman Order, chap. 2

April 9

Political and legal theory in the Roman jurists Reading: Pomponius, Enchiridion, Digest 1.2.2 D. Johnston, “The General Influence of Roman Institutions of State and Public Law”

Week 12:

Christianity and the State

April 14

The rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire; Eusebius

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Reading: H. A. Drake, In Praise of Constantine R. MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire, chap. 5 April 16

Augustine Reading: Augustine, City of God Coleman, A History of Political Thought, chap. 6 N. H. Baynes, “The Political Ideas of St. Augustine’s De Civitate Dei”

Week 13:

The Greek Tradition

April 21

Democracy ancient and modern Reading: M. Finley, Democracy Ancient and Modern Roberts, Athens on Trial Elizabeth Rawson, The Spartan Tradition in European Thought

April 23

The Greeks and the Founders Reading: Nelson, The Greek Tradition in Republican Thought, chap. 6 Paul Rahe, Republics Ancient and Modern Roberts, Athens on Trial, chap. 9

Week 14:

The Roman Tradition

April 28

Constitutionalism and rights Reading: Lintott, Constitution, chap. 13 Millar, The Roman Republic in Political Thought Straumann, “Is Modern Liberty Ancient?” (ER) Assignment 4 due

April 30

Conclusion: what exactly are we the heirs of? Reading: Skinner, Liberty Before Republicanism

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Paper Assignments: All papers must be between 5 and 7 pages, 12 pt. font, double-spaced. Please include title, name, and number of assignment on title page. Each answer to each question (two per paper, see below) should be written as a formal, stand-alone essay, with a clearly stated argument and notes with full citations wherever appropriate. Please ask if you have any questions about criteria or specific assignments. If you wish to discuss your argument or any other substantive matter, feel free to meet with the instructor and/or teaching assistants. You must choose one assignment from the first half of the course (that is, choose one from assignments 1 and 2) and one from the second half (assignments 3 and 4). Assignment 1 (due February 10): Choose and write about two of the following: 1.1. What were the conditions that made political reflection possible in Greece in the first place? Describe the most important features of the historical context which enabled, and caused, Greek political thinking in the archaic age. Pay special attention to the differences in political context between Homer and Hesiod. 1.2. Was Solon’s constitution a democracy? Describe what are—according to our sources—the most democratic features of his constitution. What makes them democratic? Would we today still call them democratic? 1.3. Describe the Spartan constitution, and compare Aristotle’s, Plutarch’s and Xenophon’s accounts of the Spartan politeia. 1.4. How was the democratic order in Athens protected? Were there any legal safeguards of democracy? Describe, based on Thucydides 8.67f. and Aristotle, Constitution (reading of Feb. 3) how the democratic order was changed into an oligarchic one, and pay special attention to the safeguards that had to be overcome by the oligarchs. Were these political, legal, or even constitutional safeguards? Argue for your view. Assignment 2 (due March 3): Choose and write about two of the following: 2.1. Compare Hesiod’s exchange between the nightingale and the hawk with the views of the Sophists on natural law and man-made law. 2.2. Discuss the passage from Plato, Protagoras, which you have read, and discuss Protagoras’ view of democracy. Can Protagoras’ be called a theory of democracy?

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2.3. Compare Plato’s central criticism of democracy with Aristotle’s—what are their criteria? Is there something to be said for either point? Defend the thrust of their criticisms, and then argue against them. 2.4. Compare Plato’s ideal state with Aristotle’s best state. Pay special attention to the tension between utopianism on the one hand and empirical tendencies on the other, in the accounts of both philosophers. Assignment 3 (due March 31): TBA Assignment 4 (due April 28): TBA

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