Athenian Urbanization, Athenian Response and Platonic Critique

Abstract

Athenian urbanization is an understudied aspect of Athenian history and especially the response of the Athenian society to it. This paper therefore aims to analyse Athenian demography and urbanization and what the responses from historical sources, Athenian court, Athenian theatre and Plato were during the period of 430-350 BCE. I analysed primary sources like Xenophon and Thucydides to see how the demography and urbanization changed in Attica, if they wrote anything about the responses in Athens and what their opinion is on this subject. I also analysed some inscriptions, the speeches of Isaeus, comedies of Aristophanes and Plato’s Republic and Laws to see what the response was in Athens. I found out that the demography of Athens drastically changed and that the urbanization, that normally was 30%, increased heavily because of migration. The responses from Athens were varied. Xenophon commented on the economic situation of Athens and advised Athens to invite more metics and improve their agricultural capabilities. While inscriptions told how Athens itself only really intervened during times of war, Isaeus’ speeches indicated the revenue of the Athenian upper class and Aristophanes’ plays showed how the migrants wanted to return home. Plato’s works displayed some signs of being anti-urbanization as he wanted his cities to remain small, its citizens with as little desire as possible and without foreign contact. So, while the responses differ, they do correspond with each other and they do respond to the changes in urbanization and the changed economic situation that followed.