Atenas 403

At the end of the 5th century B.C. C., the Peloponnesian War led to the defeat of Athens. Taking advantage of the debacle, a commission of thirty oligarchs abolished the democratic institutions that had governed the political life of the city for a century: it was the beginning of a bloody civil war that lasted just over a year. But the Democrats did not sit idly by. At the end of 404, Thrasybulus raised an army of volunteers, and after several resounding victories and difficult negotiations, in the autumn of 403 reconciliation was achieved and democracy restored. Based on the fate of ten unique historical figures, this essay approaches the facts from a new angle. Inspired by the model of the Greek theater chorus, it offers us a renewed vision of Athenian society that shies away from the traditional categories that distinguished exclusively between citizens, foreigners and slaves. The conflict gave rise to multiple and changing collectives, organized around key figures, such as the unclassifiable Socrates, the oligarch Critias, the rhetorician Lysias, but also the scribe Nicomacheus, the former slave Geris or the priestess Lysimaca. By examining this choir, the hierarchies and tensions that run through it are revealed, as well as the practices and emotions that unite it. Shaping a new sociology of the polis under the sign of plurality and contingency, this choral story points, ultimately, to the way in which society is built: by what processes does a solid community come to be torn apart, or even broken? to disintegrate, and then to be refounded? An original and enlightening reflection that dialogues directly with today's world.