We're touring the 21st century where there are many decisions to be made in these next weeks about who will be the new emperor of the American empire. We care about that because we're 1st century men and we're very pleased with the empire that our forefathers have put together. Not so pleased that we want to be in Rome—that's dangerous.
We're here in Londinium, far from Rome, observing our troubled emperor Domitian. Chiefly, he is the other son of Vespasian, he's never been adequate in terms of pleasing the Senate, and he will end violently. We'll come to succession later.
But we're going to begin now with a word you will hear commonly for the rest of the weeks before the Americans choose an emperor, and that is the word democracy.
Germanicus now and again has mentioned his Greek roots. I have no Greek roots; I am if anything more English than Roman. But right now I'm looking very carefully at democracy and finding it without meaning at all in the 21st century.
I look at the 6th century BCE and find that democracy was also without meaning. It was not attractive to the people of Athens, to the aristocracy of Athens, and to one particular man, Pisistratus. He became dictator, tyrant, then exile, then tyrant, dictator, then exile, and finally a man who achieved a great deal of building Athens: a patron of the arts redistributing capital, taking on the aristocracy—he was everything you'd want in a imperial leader.
However, he was not leading an empire. He was leading one city state.
The word in the 21st century is being used cultishly, as something to achieve. In the 6th century BCE, it was regarded as not very attractive given that we're not going to get a lot of baubles out of the king.
Pisistratus was a bauble giver. When Athens turned to democracy, it was nowhere near as much fun for the common people and for building. That's then.
I turn to Germanicus to hear his thoughts on the word democracy today. And then, because I find it meaningless in the 21st century, did it have weight for the Greeks in the 6th century BCE?
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Democracy and Its Discontents