Athens under Macedonian domination: Athenian politics and politicians from the Lamian War to the Chremonidean War

This thesis is a revisionist history of Athens during the much-neglected period between the Lamian and Chremonidean wars. It draws upon all the available literary and epigraphical evidence to provide a reinterpretation of Athenian politics in this confused period. -- Rather than providing a narrative of Athens in the early Hellenistic period (a task which has been admirably completed by Professor Christian Habicht), this thesis seeks to provide a review of Athenian politics and politicians. It seeks to identify who participated in the governing of Athens and their motivations for doing so, to determine what constituted a politician in democratic Athens, and to redefine political ideology. The purpose of this research is to allow a clearer understanding of the Athenian political arena in the early Hellenistic period. -- This thesis is comprised of three sections: -The first provides a definition of what constituted a politician in democratic Athens and how Athenian politicians interacted with each other. -The second discusses Athenian political ideology, and seeks to demonstrate that the Athenian politicians of the early Hellenistic period were just as ideologically motivated as their predecessors in the fifth and fourth centuries. This section seeks to show that the much-maligned Hellenistic democracies were little different from the so-called "true" democracies of the Classical period. The only real difference between these regimes was the fact that whereas Classical Athens was militarily strong and independent, Hellenistic Athens lacked the military capacity to remain free and independent, and was incapable of competing with the Macedonian dynasts as an equal partner. -The third section consists of a series of detailed prosopographical studies of leading Athenian politicians including Demades, Phokion, Demetrios of Phaleron, Stratokles, and Demochares. The purpose of this section is to evaluate the careers of these politicians who played a pivotal role in Athenian politics in order to enable us to better understand the nature of Athenian politics and political ideology in this period. -This thesis also includes an appended list of all the Athenians who meet my definition of a "politician" in democratic Athens. -- The overall aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that there was no real qualitative difference between Athenian democracy in the period between the Lamian and Chremonidean wars and the fifth and fourth century democracies.