Abstract:

This dissertation presents a historical and socio-political analysis of ancient Greek anti-tyranny legislation. Chapter one examines the Athenian decree of Demophantus (410 B.C.), the Urtext for subsequent democratically promulgated anti-tyranny law. Therein it is demonstrated that the promulgation and enforcement of that decree solved the coordination problem that the Athenian democrats had in responding to internal defections from the political status quo (i.e. a coup) and thus deterred individuals from making such a move in the future. Each of the five subsequent chapters examines an anti-tyranny promulgation through the methodological lens developed in the first chapter. Chapters two and three--examinations of the Eretrian anti-tyranny law (340 B.C.) and the Athenian law of Eukrates (337/6 B.C.) respectively--demonstrate that the Athenians successfully used anti-tyranny legislation to counter Philip II's attempt to subvert the Euboean and Athenian democracies. Chapters four, five, and six--examinations of the "tyranny dossier" from Eresos (332-ca. 300 B.C.), the "Philites stele" from Erythrai (ca. 280 B.C.), and the Ilian anti-tyranny law (ca. 280 B.C.) respectively--demonstrate, collectively, that the promulgation of anti-tyranny legislation helped make viable the early Hellenistic democratic revolution in Asia Minor ushered in by Alexander the Great. The dissertation's concluding remarks briefly assess the significance of anti-tyranny legislation in the history of ancient Greek democracy. Therein it is argued that such legislation played an important and concrete role in the survival of democratic governance in the ancient Greek world.