Eulogy for the Athenian way of life.

Constitutions are a foundational blueprint and legal framework for how political communities are governed.

While there is debate among historians on whether the Romans had the foresight to compose a constitution on their own terms, and which was even viable, there is no argument on where the concept of democracy originated - the ancient Greeks.

A most stirring encomium of the Greek constitution, that represented the Athenian way of life, was delivered through the words of Pericles’ in his infamous Funeral Oration, as presented in Thucydides’, History of the Peloponnesian War.

Below are a few key excerpts from that speech, in keeping with my mission to draw parallels between the ancient world and our own:

Greek marble grave relief with a funerary banquet and departing warriors. 2nd Century BC. Image courtest of MET.

“…For ours is a constitution which does not imitate those of others, but rather sets them an example. Its name — because power rests not with a few but with a majority — is Democracy;

In private disputes all are equal before the law, and in public life, men are honoured for conspicuous achievement in any field, and not for sectional reasons;

Nor is any poor man, who has it in him to do good service to the city, prevented by his obscurity.

Ours is a free state, both in politics and in social life...

… Wealth we consider an opportunity for service, not an occasion for boasting, and poverty no disgrace to confess, unless we are failing to do anything about it…

…For we alone call the man who keeps out of all this not inoffensive but ineffective.

…Also, we do not consider that debate impedes action, but rather that to go into action without previous briefing does so.

We are the better men in this too, that we, who run the risks, are the same men who calculate them; whereas among others, ignorance is daring, and the calculated risk is shirked. Those men should surely be judged the bravest, who know most clearly what danger is and what pleasure is, and then do not flinch…

In a word, I say that our whole city is a liberal education to Greece.

We need no Homer to praise us, no poet whose lines give pleasure for the moment, but whose ‘facts’ are open to doubt…

Think of the greatness of the city, actually seen day by day, till you fall in love with her; and when you think how splendid she is, remember this: that all this was won by men who faced danger and knew their duty and shunned dishonour…

…Emulate them now, and believing that happiness is freedom, and freedom is courage, do not shun the dangers of battle.”

There is much to glean from these words.

Let it be that more good men and women will take heart and engage in political life; and remember in doing so that their pursuit is not self-interest, but their country’s.