One of the important changes in Greece during the period from 800 B.C. to 500 B.C. was the rise of the polis, or city-state, and each polis developed a system of government that was appropriate to its circumstances. The problems that were faced and solved in Athens were the sharing of political power between the established aristocracy and the emerging other classes, and the adjustment of aristocratic ways of life to the ways of life of the new polis. It was the harmonious blending of all of these elements that was to produce the classical culture of Athens.
- polis 城邦
- aristocracy 贵族
- established 已建立的;根深蒂固的
- emerging 新兴的
- Athen 雅典
Entering the polis age, Athens had the traditional institutions of other Greek protodemocratic states: an assembly of adult males, an aristocratic council, and annually elected officials.
- protodemocratic 民主原型的
- council 委员会
Within this traditional framework the Athenians, between 600 B.C. and 450 B.C., evolved what Greeks regarded as a fully fledged democratic constitution, though the right to vote was given to fewer groups of people than is seen in modem times.
- fledged 成熟的
- in modem times 现在
- constitution 宪法
The first steps toward change were taken by Solon in 594 B.C., when he broke the aristocracy's stranglehold on elected offices by establishing wealth rather than birth as the basis of office holding, abolishing the economic obligations of ordinary Athenians to the aristocracy, and allowing the assembly (of which all citizens were equal members) to overrule the decisions of local courts in certain cases.
- strangehold 束缚
- office 官职
- overrule 驳回;否决
The strength of the Athenian aristocracy was further weakened during the rest of the century by the rise of a type of government known as a tyranny, which is a form of interim rule by a popular strongman (not rule by a ruthless dictator as the modern use of the term suggests to us).
- tyranny 暴政;专政
- interim 暂时的;临时的
- ruthless 无情的;残忍的
- dictator 独裁者
- strongman 铁腕人物
The Peisistratids, as the succession of tyrants were called (after the founder of the dynasty, Peisistratos), strengthened Athenian central administration at the expense of the aristocracy by appointing judges throughout the region, producing Athens' first national coinage, and adding and embellishing festivals that tended to focus attention on Athens rather than on local villages of the surrounding region.
- succession 继承人
- tyrant 专政统治者
- at the expense of 在损失某事物的情况下
- appoint judges 任命法官
- coinage 货币制度
- embellish 美化
By the end of the century, the time was ripe for more change: the tyrants were driven out, and in 508 B.C. a new reformer, Cleisthenes, gave final form to the developments reducing aristocratic control already under way.
- tyrants 铁腕人物
- drive out 驱逐
Cleisthenes' principal contribution to the creation of democracy at Athens was to complete the long process of weakening family and clan structures, especially among the aristocrats, and to set in their place locality-based corporations called demes. which became the point of entry for all civic and most religious life in Athens.
- principal 主要的;首要的
- long process 漫长历程
- family 家族
- clan 宗族
- set in 设置
- locality-based 基于区域的
- corporation 团体
- demes 群落
- civic 公民
- point of entry 切入点
Out of the demes were created 10 artificial tribes of roughly equal population.
- roughly 大致地;
- roughly equal population 大致相当人口的
From the demes, by either election or selection, came 500 members of a new council, 6,000 jurors for the courts, 10 generals, and hundreds of commissioners.
- selection 评选
- juror 陪审员
- court 法院
- general 将军
- commissioner 委员
The assembly was sovereign in all matters but in practice delegated its power to subordinate bodies such as the council which prepared the agenda for the meetings of the assembly, and deme courts, which took care of most judicial matters.
- sovereign 至高无上的
- in practice 实际上
- delegate 授予
- subordinate 下属的
- body 团体
- agenda 议程
- judicial 司法的
Various committees acted as an executive branch, implementing policies of the assembly and supervising, for instance, the food and water supplies and public buildings. This wide-scale participation by the citizenry in the government distinguished the democratic form of the Athenian polis from other, less liberal forms.
- executive 执行的
- branch 部门
- implement 实施
- liberal 自由的;自由主义者
The effect of Cleisthenes' reforms was to establish the superiority of the Athenian community as a whole over local institutions without destroying them.
Cleisthenes改革的效果是使得雅典社会作为一个整体比当地组织更优越，而且还可以保留这些当地组织
- effect 效果
- superiority 优势;优越
- as a whole 作为一个整体
National politics rather than local or deme politics became the focal point. At the same time, entry into national politics began at the deme level and gave local loyalty a new focus: Athens itself. Over the next two centuries the implications of Cleisthenes' reforms were fully exploited.
同时，群落也开始进入国家政治，而且参与国家政治也使得人们开始对雅典忠诚
- politics 政治
- focal 焦点的
- loyalty 忠诚
- implication 含义
- exploit 开发
During the fifth century B.C. the council of 500 was extremely influential in shaping policy. In the next century, however, it was the mature assembly that took on decision-making responsibility. By any measure other than that of the aristocrats, who had been upstaged by the supposedly inferior "people," the Athenian democracy was a stunning success.
- shaping 计划;成型
- by any measure 用任何测量标准
- other than 除了
- upstage 抢镜头;抢风头
- supposedly inferior "people" 所谓的“下等人”
- stunning 令人惊叹的
Never before, or since, have so many people been involved in the serious business of self-governance. It was precisely this opportunity to participate in public life that provided a stimulus for the brilliant unfolding of classical Greek culture.
- since 从古至今
-
in the serious business of真正意义上的 - self-governance 自治
- precisely 恰恰
- unfolding 展开;发展