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NARRATOR: Athens, Greece.
Here, 2,500 years ago,
a bold political experiment took place.
For more than a century,
archaeologists and historians
have been investigating this crucial period,
when for the first time in recorded history,
elite rulers shared power
with humble citizens.
Inventing a new form of government: democracy.
PAUL CARTLEDGE: The ancient Greek word "demokratia"
is two words put together: "demos," "kratos."
Demos is the people.
Kratos meant power, strength, force.
NARRATOR: What led to it? How did it work?
And why did those in power allow it?
Today, researchers are finding
new clues to answer these questions and more.
That's a smoking gun.
NARRATOR: Conducting hands-on experiments
to decode ancient texts,
understand evidence from the ancient ruins...
...and learn how this first democracy
protected itself from tyranny, civil war and corruption.
PANAYOTIS ZESTANAKIS: It's a black one.
NARRATOR: Piecing together the epic story that laid the foundation
for today's democratic societies.
"Athens: Birth of Democracy."
Right now, on "NOVA!"
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: In the heart of Athens,
the capital of Greece, rises the Acropolis.
A rocky outcrop where the Parthenon stands.
Built 2,500 years ago,
during a time of cultural and political upheaval...
(blade unsheathing)
...that gave birth to the first democracy
of western civilization.
For more than a century,
archaeologists have been excavating
at the foot of the Acropolis.
Because this is where many historians believe
the Athenians invented a form of democracy
that would help inspire the authors
of the American constitution.
And in this park
are the remains of the Agora:
an ancient open plaza,
where citizens gathered to decide their own fates.
JOHN CAMP: So it is essentially the center of town
where democracy was first practiced
and was in use for 200 years.
There's a legislative branch for the people making the laws,
there's an executive branch for the magistrates
running the city.
NARRATOR: There were also courts making major decisions about
the future of Athens.
And all these branches were run mainly by ordinary citizens
who were not elected by popular vote, but chosen at random,
by lottery, and held their posts for just one year each.
This revolutionary experiment happened at a time
when many other societies were ruled by kings,
pharaohs or small groups of rich and powerful people.
While commoners had no say in public affairs.
♪ ♪
What sparked this revolutionary experiment?
♪ ♪
One clue might be a recent, disturbing discovery
in the southwest of the city at a place called Phaleron.
(machinery beeping)
Here, during excavation at a construction site,
builders uncovered a vast, ancient cemetery.
Dated between the 8th and 5th centuries BCE,
the burial ground contained the remains
of Athenian men and women of all social classes.
And in 2016,
archaeologists found something gruesome.
About 80 skeletons--
mostly young men in chains,
all violently killed,
placed side-by-side in three trenches.
Director of excavations, Stella Chryssoulaki,
led the investigation into what looked like
an ancient mass execution.
(translated): It was something we had never seen before.
Why were they handcuffed?
Why were there fractures at this specific spot on the skull
on most of the individuals in this mass grave?
NARRATOR: The high salt content of the sandy soil
destroyed any chemical traces that would allow
the remains to be precisely dated.
But the designs of two small vases found next to them
made it possible to determine when they were buried:
the second half of the 7th century BCE.
The find was so unusual,
archaeologists and historians immediately wanted to know,
what happened here?
For their research, they turned to a vast body of texts
copied by hand over the centuries.
At first by the Greeks and Romans,
then later by Arab scholars and Christian scribes.
By studying these ancient texts,
Stella made a connection with accounts
of an attempted coup d'etat that took place in that very period.
In the late 7th century BCE,
an Olympic champion, named Cylon,
became intoxicated by his own popularity.
He dreamed of becoming the all-powerful ruler,
or tyrant, of Athens.
Encouraged by supporters,
he decided to seize power by force.
At the time, the city was ruled by an oligarchy:
a few wealthy families, each represented by an archon,
a magistrate responsible for managing political affairs.
These archons fought back against Cylon
and his supporters, driving the coup plotters
into the temple of Athena at the top of the Acropolis,
where they sought refuge.
(translated): They went inside.
They shut the doors.
(doors clanging)
They remained trapped inside.
NARRATOR: Greek religious practice forbade violence
against anyone who placed themselves
under the protection of a god or goddess.
CHRYSSOULAKI (translated): But they were held for many days.
They began to suffer and starve without food or water.
NARRATOR: The archons promised to keep them alive if they surrendered.
They did not want the men to die within the temple walls;
a terrible sacrilege.
To maintain the goddess's protection,
Cylon's supporters attached a rope to the statue of Athena
and to each other.
What happened as they emerged is debated,
but Stella thinks...
(translated): One of the archons cut the rope.
And then they were killed.
It was an early form of civil war.
NARRATOR: Some archaeologists think these skeletons
could be the remains of those insurrectionists.
Evidence of potential for violence
in Athenian society during a time
when tyranny was always a threat to the existing oligarchy.
No matter how secure the oligarchs' hold on power,
the archons always feared that one of their own,
or another charismatic leader from the elite,
would rise up as a tyrant and depose them,
seizing power for himself.
Which eventually did happen-- about 70 years later,
in 560 BCE.
When a tyrant named Pisistratus seized power.
He ruled absolutely.
Eventually passing power to his sons,
Hipparchus and Hippias, in a family reign that lasted
for decades and ended in violence.
It's a story that's been brought to light
thanks to some recent discoveries.
(building crumbling)
A few hundred yards from the Acropolis,
the clearing of some old buildings has given
archaeologists expanded access to an important historical site.
(clanging)
John Camp was the director of excavations
here in the ancient Agora, for almost three decades.
In the most recently cleared area,
he thinks he found traces of a place
described in ancient texts...
...where a bloody murder changed
the destiny of Athens.
VINCENT AZOULAY: So you think you really find the sanctuary of Leos?
CAMP: We'll see, but I'm interested in your opinion.
NARRATOR: He is eager to share this discovery
with historian Vincent Azoulay.
It's quite emotional for me.
You know, I'm glad you're here.
NARRATOR: Vincent studies Athenian democracy.
How it emerged,
and how it managed to control the elites,
who never fully accepted a political system
that gave so much power to commoners.
These are original walls, and those are original walls.
NARRATOR: According to John, they're close to the place
where one of the tyrants of Athens was assassinated.
♪ ♪
On this day in 514 BCE,
Athens' largest festival was in full swing.
The entire city celebrated
the goddess Athena
and marched in a grand procession
to the top of the Acropolis.
(horses whinnying)
Horsemen and infantrymen,
musicians and water carriers,
priestesses and young girls with offerings,
paraded behind several hundred heads of cattle
destined to be sacrificed
and shared in honor of the goddess.
But during the excitement,
the tyrant Hipparchus was attacked by two armed men
and stabbed to death.
(blade unsheathing)
(screaming, wailing)
Ancient historians reported that the murder
took place next to a small sanctuary called the Leokorion.
John thinks they've discovered
the remains of this historic building.
And this is the best one here because it's got every letter.
It's clear as a bell.
And so, here you can see the epimeletai
to Leos.
Dedicated this.
AZOULAY: That's quite convincing.
That's a smoking gun.
NARRATOR: The Leokorion was a sanctuary dedicated
to the legendary hero Leos and his three daughters,
who agreed to be sacrificed to save Athens
from a plague.
Around the side here
is another inscription.
AZOULAY: I am really convinced.
(chuckles)
Really, for me,
it's an emotional moment
after working so many years on the subject.
NARRATOR: It seems that John has found where it all started.
Because this assassination triggered a series of events
that led to the first democracy.
♪ ♪
But what was that first experiment like?
In search of clues, another team of researchers
is investigating some mysterious stone fragments.
(translated): They're arranged like this.
NARRATOR: For a long time,
archaeologists have wondered
what these ancient pieces of marble were.
But French archaeologist
Liliane Lopez-Rabatel
and architect Nicolas Bresch have an idea.
(translated): These fragments have remained a mystery
for almost a century.
The first archaeologist who found it in 1830
made a replica, with a small
caption indicating that he did not know
what it was used for, that it might be a clock.
A century later,
an American researcher spotted the word "kleroterion"
engraved on one side.
In Greek,
"kleroterion" means "lottery machine."
(translated): This is what it looks like.
NARRATOR: No intact example of this kind of "lottery machine"
has ever been found,
only broken fragments.
So they have enlisted
the help of sculptor
Panayotis Zestanakis to recreate
the original object and test their theory.
What we are going to do is experimental archaeology,
actually, we are going to use only ancient techniques.
So, this might lead to interesting conclusions.
(translated): So, I'll take another photo of it.
NARRATOR: According to ancient texts,
lottery machines played an essential role
in Athenian democracy.
LOPEZ-RABATEL (translated): 1,200 annual positions were drawn by lottery.
In fact, a considerable number of people
were drawn by lot every day, every month, every year.
NARRATOR: Unlike modern representative democracies,
where citizens elect officials to govern,
Athens was a more direct democracy,
where representatives were chosen from the citizenry
by drawing lots.
Liliane and her team want to recreate this early
lottery machine and test it with 150 participants,
to see how it worked in Athens
2,500 years ago.
When citizens needed a way to guarantee
randomized selection to prevent fraud and corruption.
And allow any citizen to participate
in public affairs and decision making.
But the road to this form of democracy was not smooth.
A tyrant had been killed.
(blade unsheathing)
But what happened next?
What became of the two tyrant-slayers?
(translated): One was killed just after
assassinating Hipparchus,
and the other was tortured and then executed.
So tyranny didn't collapse, quite the contrary,
it became even stronger, because the brother of the man
who had been assassinated, Hippias, had survived.
NARRATOR: As a result, this second tyrant, Hippias,
became completely paranoid and ruled Athens through terror.
Opponents of his regime
were tortured, or executed without warning.
Thrown from a cliff.
To finally end the tyranny and change the destiny of Athens
would take a foreign intervention
and the arrival of a charismatic reformer.
In 510 BCE,
the warrior city of Sparta, Athens' great rival,
invaded and caused the tyrant Hippias to flee to Persia,
a vast empire stretching from Turkey to Egypt
and as far as Afghanistan.
And a major threat to the Greek World.
So when the deposed tyrant Hippias
entered the service of the Persian king, Darius I,
he became one of Greece's greatest traitors,
and is still remembered that way today.
Meanwhile, in Athens,
the king of Sparta sought to install a new tyrant,
but the Athenians revolted.
And instead, they demanded the return
of a respected aristocrat who had been exiled by Hippias.
A visionary named Cleisthenes.
AZOULAY (translated): Cleisthenes was the great reformer of classical Athens.
With the support of the people, and the people leaning on him,
he truly laid the foundations of the democratic system.
NARRATOR: Some of the most crucial evidence of Cleisthenes'
profound influence comes from a papyrus
found at the end of the 19th century, in Egypt.
It features a copy of a text written by the philosopher
Aristotle and his students
at the end of the 4th century BCE:
the Athenian constitution.
This precious ancient document
is now at The British Library in London.
Historian Paul Cartledge
has come here to examine
this one surviving copy of Aristotle's survey
of the constitutions of dozens
of Greek and Mediterranean cities.
CARTLEDGE: Only one survives.
This is the one.
We don't have it all.
There are bits missing at the beginning and at the end.
NARRATOR: Paul studies the different forms of democracy
that have existed throughout history,
from Athens to the present day.
For him, this document reveals
Cleisthenes as one of the main founders of Athenian democracy.
CARTLEDGE: He had the authority of having always resisted
the tyrants, and therefore, he comes back
and he's allowed back and he has the aura.
But he comes back, apparently, with a plan.
NARRATOR: Right away,
Cleisthenes dramatically expands political participation,
giving power
to the majority of citizens.
Though the idea of citizenship was limited to adult males
with Athenian parents, it was a major shift
to expand power beyond those who were born rich.
The majority are poor, and the majority are farmers.
It's a revolutionary situation.
And opponents of Cleisthenes,
oligarchs and people who don't like democracy,
thought he was much too permissive.
So the notion that
the demos-- the people-- is the power holder,
that's new, completely new.
NARRATOR: So how did this Athenian democratic experiment work?
On the site of the Agora,
archaeologists have found traces of Cleisthenes' major reforms,
including the remains of a very special monument.
Here, ten statues of legendary Athenian heroes
served as a gathering place for citizens
who wanted to learn about the laws being proposed.
All important information concerning
the life of the city was posted here.
And you, as an Athenian citizen, could stand out here
and you could read these notices,
but you couldn't quite touch them.
In the days before radio
and television, telephones and newspapers,
this is where public information
started dissemination.
Were they being prescribed for the army,
and how many days rations were they supposed to bring?
Were they involved in upcoming lawsuits?
Were they the subject of public honors?
NARRATOR: The ten statues represented ten tribes,
and their makeup was a key part of Cleisthenes' plan
to ensure fair and effective representation.
Cleisthenes understood that democracy would only work
if he could bring citizens together in new ways.
First, he divided the Athenian territory
into three zones: the city, the countryside, and the coast.
Each zone was divided into ten districts.
Each tribe included members from all three zones,
with the different districts chosen by lot.
As a result, each tribe would include
a mix of citizens who were geographically,
or socially, distant from each other.
(translated): It was an absolutely extraordinary mixing of people,
which had the effect of breaking up the aristocratic block.
Before, members of the elite could influence political life
by relying on a whole clique of people who were
dependent on them, especially economically.
But that was no longer possible,
because people were now distributed,
and distributed randomly.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: How did Cleisthenes manage
to enact such revolutionary reform?
The answer lies 75 miles from Athens,
in a legendary sanctuary built on the side of a mountain.
A place the ancient Greeks considered
to be the center of the world:
the sanctuary of Delphi,
dedicated to the god Apollo.
Rich and poor, all recognized the authority of Apollo
and came to consult his oracle...
...the Pythia of Delphi.
This woman was the intermediary for the god...
...and so Cleisthenes came to visit her, asking her
to randomly choose ten names among a hundred
of Athens' founding heroes.
(translated): It was the Pythia of Delphi who,
in a certain way,
gave her endorsement to this distribution
of citizens into ten new tribes,
which legitimized what was
a true revolution.
NARRATOR: For more than two centuries,
the ten tribes of Cleisthenes were at the heart
of Greek democracy...
...as was the use of random selection,
which became one of the main political tools in Athens.
♪ ♪
In this direct democracy, there were almost no elections,
no career politicians running to represent the people.
Most of the civic offices and positions,
more than 1,200 in total,
were chosen at random each year from a large pool of citizens.
Only a few positions were elected,
such as military officers, treasurers,
and water supply managers.
And each was elected for a limited term.
CAMP: Democracy for the ancients
was not defined by election.
The ancients would laugh at us
if we said that's a democratic society.
Election, according to the ideas of democrats,
was oligarchy, because it favored the well-known,
who would therefore be wealthy, well-born, politically active.
Whereas the lottery randomizes the process,
and it doesn't advantage anybody on grounds of their birth,
or their wealth.
NARRATOR: The drawing of lots was an obsession,
and became a kind of "democratic technology."
But how did they do it?
At first, beans of different colors
were used for drawing lots.
But that system could be rigged,
and limited the number of people who could be selected.
♪ ♪
In an effort
to make the process as transparent as possible,
they developed wooden and marble machines,
like the one archaeologists are trying to reconstruct,
called the "kleroterion."
So how did these machines work?
Liliane Lopez-Rabatel and Nicolas Bresch
worked for years to research and design a prototype,
starting with clues contained in the papyrus.
According to this text, the names of citizens
who were participating in a selection
were inscribed on small strips of bronze or wood.
And these were inserted into the grooves.
Then, black and white cubes were mixed up
and thrown into a funnel at the top of the machine,
where they fell into a tube.
(translated): Based on our studies of
the remains and cross-referencing
information from the texts,
we did some tests.
NARRATOR: The papyrus says
the cubes were removed one by one.
If a black cube came out,
the top row of citizen nametags were eliminated.
If the cube was white,
then the name tags on that row were selected.
The process was repeated
as many times as there were rows.
When the process was complete,
the selected citizens became the decision makers
for whatever matters were at hand.
(translated): What remains a bit mysterious
is precisely how the cubes were extracted from the tube.
So we really want to work with the sculptor,
Panayotis,
to see how we can continue these tests.
(breeze blowing)
(birds calling, motor wailing)
NARRATOR: On the island of Tinos,
90 miles from Athens,
the kleroterion begins to take shape.
(chisel clinking)
(blowing)
This is where the sculptor Panayotis lives,
far from the hustle and bustle of the city.
ZESTANAKIS: One of the most difficult parts
of making of the kleroterion is this hole,
because it is against the grain of the marble.
It is easy to split the marble in this direction.
(chisel clinking)
You can tell that everything is all right,
judging with the ear.
If the sound changes,
I have to be careful.
(clinking) But as long as this bell noise
is the same all over the place, I'm okay.
There are no cracks inside.
If the sound was different
from one side to the other...
(clinking)
there, that would be a problem.
(clinking)
It's very dramatic.
(chiseling)
NARRATOR: In ancient Athens,
these machines could vary in size
depending on how many people had to be selected.
♪ ♪
One of the biggest groups they were used for
was a council of 500 citizens--
50 from each of the ten tribes.
This council, made of citizens over the age of 30,
was tasked with drafting new laws
in preparation for a vote.
They met at the bouleuterion, located in the Agora.
CAMP: So, this is their meeting place.
It held 500 people,
and they were here almost every single day,
arguing, discussing, debating
any proposed legislation that came up.
We have to assume that it was fairly noisy
and they presumably sat in tribal contingents.
NARRATOR: Right next door was the Tholos,
a circular building that housed
the executive government of Athens.
This branch of government was made up of 50 councilors
from one tribe.
A rotating group of 17 of them
lived here day and night for a month,
addressing any urgent matters that came up.
Then, they handed responsibility over
to 50 citizens from another tribe,
and so on.
This ensured that all ten tribes took part
in the most important public affairs.
CAMP: And it is here that the democracy flourished.
This was the center of government.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: But when it came to making policy decisions
and passing new laws,
how did this system actually work?
That process took place just a few minutes' walk
from the Agora, on the other side of the Acropolis.
Called the Pnyx,
this is where all the citizens of Athens gathered
about four times a month
to vote on laws proposed by the Athenian council.
DIMITRIS PLANTZOS (translated): They were always afraid
of tyranny, they were always afraid
of a new oligarchic regime;
they tried very hard to avoid it.
NARRATOR: Archaeologist Dimitris Plantzos
takes his students into the field
so they can get a feeling
for what it was like to participate
in Athenian democracy.
♪ ♪
Here, at the crack of dawn,
thousands of citizens would gather.
The chairman of the day, chosen by lottery,
would announce the agenda, opening the floor to speakers.
Next came the time for discussion.
According to ancient sources,
the debates were often intense.
(indistinct shouting)
But eventually,
it was time to vote
by a simple show of hands.
PLANTZOS (speaking English): The Pnyx signifies
the power of the people,
the power given to the people,
the power exercised by the people.
NARRATOR: To ensure that the poorest citizens
and those who worked or lived far from the city
could participate,
the city paid them a small salary to attend.
♪ ♪
PLANTZOS: An old historian called this moment
the invention of politics.
Because this is when people
have to come together and decide to work together
to make life better for everybody.
NARRATOR: But it wasn't always a friendly gathering.
These fragments tell the story
of how the Athenians treated citizens
who were seen to be working against the democratic system.
♪ ♪
These pottery shards
bear the names of major political figures of the time.
But they were not objects of celebration.
These were "ostraka."
CAMP: They were used
by the Athenians to control their politicians.
"Ostracon" just means
a piece of pottery, and the process
is called ostracism because of that.
NARRATOR: One of Cleisthenes' innovations
made it possible for citizens
to vote against someone.
(indistinct shouting)
Once a year, the citizens' assembly
voted by a show of hands
on whether they thought their democracy
was being threatened by someone.
If a majority voted yes,
then the citizens were summoned to the Agora
about two months later.
Each citizen brought a piece of pottery,
an ostrakon,
with the name of the person they thought was responsible
and should be banished for ten years.
(translated): What's fascinating
about ostracism
is that 11,000 ostraka
have been found to date, which is absolutely staggering.
And some of the ostraka contain insults.
We have Themistocles,
who is called, if you'll pardon the expression,
a "sodomite"-- katapugon.
NARRATOR: For this great unpopularity contest,
at least 6,000 voters
out of 20,000 to 40,000 citizens
had to agree.
An ostracized individual
would then be banished from Athens' borders
for ten years.
(translated): The ostracized person
didn't lose their citizenship
or the income from their property.
So there was a whole series of guarantees
that limited arbitrariness
and explained why the ostracized
never turned against the Athenian city.
And that was absolutely crucial,
because ostracism ensured that the elites conformed
to the expectations of the people.
NARRATOR: The Athenians were determined to find ways
to keep the citizens united
and protect democracy.
But external threats also brought the people together.
In the early fifth century BCE,
a Persian invasion led Athens to build a fleet
of 200 warships called triremes.
The effort to build and crew the ships
united its citizens.
It's a lesson that still resonates today.
This replica of an ancient warship
belongs to the Greek navy.
It is only used on special occasions.
Inside, rowers sit on three different levels,
the source of the name "trireme."
(captain yelling indistinctly)
This one was reconstructed
by British archaeologists in the 1980s
based on ancient texts and carvings.
CAMP: The creation of the fleet
changed the society.
Up until now,
Athens had been a land power
and had fought with perhaps
10,000 heavily armed foot soldiers.
Now they suddenly had 200 ships,
each one needing 170 rowers.
So, we're talking about tens of thousands of Athenians
who had to participate to be a success.
NARRATOR: Unlike Roman galleys,
which were mainly manned by slaves,
Athenian triremes were operated by citizens.
The citizen rowers were organized into teams
corresponding to the ten tribes created by Cleisthenes.
(translated): This was one of those places
of political and social mixing
that democracy brought about.
People who lived together
and risked their lives together.
We could therefore say that essentially,
the Athenian democracy is a rowing democracy.
NARRATOR: But of course,
there was a dark side to Athenian society.
The rights of citizenry were not universal.
(man speaking non-English language)
(equipment rattling)
40 miles southeast of Athens lies a maze
of more than 100 miles of underground tunnels.
These are the silver mines of Lavrion.
Over the centuries, countless enslaved people,
including children, worked in these mines.
ALBERIC NEGRO (translated): Look at this.
Look here.
If you crawl forward,
you can rest your elbows and knees.
And these are the traces left by the elbows and knees
of people who came to dig these tunnels.
Now we can really see it, it's extraordinary.
It's visible there.
NARRATOR: To investigate these tunnels,
archaeologists rely on specialists
who understand the dangers here.
Jacky Klosset is a speleologist and also a former miner.
(translated): The most difficult thing in these tunnels:
we're on all fours the whole time.
We move around like lizards with bellies to the ground.
It's hard to advance,
so how did they manage?
In my opinion, there must have been
many, many deaths in these galleries.
It's a grueling job.
Imagine, in a gallery like this,
for six, seven, eight hours,
half-naked.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: An ancient painting
shows that child slaves
like the ones in Lavrion,
worked in mines.
Often a young worker accompanied an older one.
♪ ♪
Outside, archaeologists have discovered
outlines of their undersized footprints.
ANDREAS KAPETANIOS: It could be that
these two people, these co-workers,
would rest after a very harsh day,
and make the outlines of their feet
with the tools they had in hand.
And this is for eternity.
Archaeology allows us to
approach these people of the past
who are silent in written sources.
But the questions, such as how many slaves
were active in Lavrion
is very, very difficult to be answered.
But there is one answer to that,
which is, "too many."
And by too many,
is tens of thousands.
NARRATOR: The landscape of Lavrion
was completely transformed by ancient mining.
The ruins of industrial facilities
that were set up to wash and clean the ore
are still visible today.
KAPETANIOS: There are 2,500 hectares
of dense archaeological buildings like this
in Lavrion.
That's why Lavrion is unique.
NARRATOR: The slaves of the Lavrion mines
powered the development of the Athenian economy.
Most were prisoners of war who had been bought in markets,
or were the children of slaves.
It is estimated that slaves in Athens
outnumbered citizens by about two to three times.
In antiquity, many societies in this region,
regardless of their political structure,
relied on slavery to some extent.
But in Athens,
a specific group of slaves
was at the very heart of the democratic system.
(translated): The Athenians called them
the "demosioi",
the public slaves,
the slaves who were property of the "demos,"
the people of Athens.
They were not very numerous,
perhaps between 1,000 and 2,000,
not much more.
They had different functions.
Among them, were archers, who were scythians,
who performed policing duties in the city.
NARRATOR: Even the policemen were slaves.
Many positions in the bureaucracy
were filled by these demosioi.
Archivists, clerks,
accountants, coin inspectors,
as well as assistants to the council,
the citizens at the Pnyx, and the courts.
These public slaves were treated better
than the slaves in the Lavrion mines.
They ensured the continuity of the state,
while the citizens who served in government were temporary,
usually with only a one-year term.
Those were the citizens selected with a lottery machine.
♪ ♪
Super.
Wonderful.
It's very nice. (chuckles)
I'm glad... I'm very happy.
NARRATOR: Panayotis has almost completed his project.
Liliane is testing the kleroterion,
the dice, and the funnel...
(clattering)
...as well as the mechanism designed by Panayotis
to remove the dice
one by one, using two bronze pins.
Very nice.
We could be doing this all day.
(laughs)
It seems to work well.
NARRATOR: He is fine-tuning the last details.
(chiseling)
In a few days, the machine will be transported to Athens
for its inauguration.
It's time for the first full-scale test
in the Agora of Athens.
A unique archaeological experiment
to test how these randomizing selection machines
might have worked.
(indistinct chatter)
Liliane and Panayotis' team
have brought together dozens of high school students.
(indistinct chatter)
So, we are pleased now to reveal
the result of this work.
("wow"s and applause)
So now, imagine you are in Athens
in the fourth century BC.
You are the citizens of this democratic city.
NARRATOR: Back in those days,
every morning,
citizens gathered at dawn to be chosen by lot
to serve as jurors for the day's trials.
The random lotteries
helped prevent corruption of the jury,
since no one could know in advance
who'd sit in court that day.
The procedure was visible to all,
guaranteeing that there would be no cheating.
This is a very important aspect of the machine.
No cheating is possible.
NARRATOR: To start, each participant
hands over their name tag.
(shaking)
The boxes are shaken
to thoroughly mix them.
Then they are inserted into the kleroterion.
And the lottery begins.
CHANKOWSKI: We need four light
and 26 dark.
NARRATOR: In this trial,
they want to choose 20 people,
which means picking four rows.
So, Panayotis inserts the four shiny light dice
and 26 black dice into the machine.
(clattering)
Then, he removes them one by one.
ZESTANAKIS: It's a black one.
NARRATOR: If a black die comes out,
the top row of nametags is eliminated.
CHANKOWSKI: The first row is black,
the names are not selected.
The second one is a white one.
NARRATOR: If it is a shiny die,
the line is selected.
"Kallikydis Aigilieus."
CHANKOWSKI: Kallikydis?
NARRATOR: And five people are then called
to serve as jurors.
Come, come, come.
Kallikydis.
(cheers and applause)
CAMP: Right in here.
So, she is the first selected.
Vita Pausanias Leukonoes.
CHANKOWSKI: Where are you?
(applause)
Pyxikratis Prospaltios.
(applause)
(translated): We have completed the draw,
all the lots have been drawn.
We have selected 20 jurors
for the people's court
of the democratic city of Athens.
(speaking English): Congratulations.
(applause)
(translated): I'm really very pleased
with the outcome of this experiment.
I feel relieved, tired, but truly satisfied.
NARRATOR: For the ancient Greeks,
true democracy only worked through the extensive use
of random selection.
Citizens voted on the laws that would govern them.
The absolute grip of the powerful was broken.
(indistinct shouting)
But are we really sure that democracy originated
in Athens at that time?
Were there other precedents?
(translated): People gathering together,
people legislating together,
we have known this
for a long time,
certainly since the Assyrian world.
We also find this in other communities.
NARRATOR: For example,
cuneiform tablets have been found that mention
that 3,800 years ago in what is now Iraq,
there were assemblies of notables
who designated one of their members by lot
as mayor of the city, every year.
(translated): But for the Greeks,
democracy was not just that.
It was also about controlling the elites.
In other words,
it was about how to prevent these elites
from seizing real power.
NARRATOR: This first Greek democracy
was very different from ours,
but in a way, Athenians had to deal
with some of the same challenges:
who is in charge?
How do you select and hold people accountable?
Back in that time, this experiment involved
only a few hundred thousand inhabitants.
But does size really matter
when it comes to implementing democratic ideas and concepts?
(translated): Controlling the elites
is not dependent on the size of the society.
It is something that can be experimented with
on a large scale.
And from that point of view,
the Athenian democratic experiment
still has a lot to teach us.
NARRATOR: Athenian democracy was a bold innovation.
But it wasn't without challenges.
(swords clashing)
After a century of existence,
democracy almost disappeared in Athens.
At the end of the fifth century BCE,
after three decades of war against Sparta,
the defeated Athenian government
was overthrown by 30 oligarchs.
They ruled through terror for a year,
killing more than 1,500 opponents,
often with lethal poison,
sparking a full-scale civil war.
Eventually, after eight months of chaos
and armed confrontation,
the citizens succeeded in restoring democracy.
One of the steles discovered in the Agora
describes what happened after that.
This inscription here
talks about a violent death.
Here is the Greek word for death, "thanatos."
And then right after that, it mentions democracy.
And what this inscription is doing--
it is telling us that
anybody who died a violent death
fighting to restore the democracy,
their orphans are going to be supported by the state
until they grow up.
And along the side here
are the names of all the Athenian democrats
who died fighting to restore the democracy,
and the names of their children,
who will now be taken care of
by the new government until they grow up.
So, it's a very powerful message
about how hard it was to restore the democracy
and what the cost was.
NARRATOR: Democracy held strong for almost another century
until Athens was defeated by the Macedonians from the north,
led by Alexander the Great
and his father, King Philip II.
Self-rule was finally swept away
when the Roman Empire took over Greece
around the middle of the second century BCE.
Athenian democracy was an early experiment.
Today, there are many forms of democracy around the world.
But they all have the same powerful ideas in common--
that a healthy democracy
needs to heed the voice of the people
while enshrining robust checks and balances
in order to defend against tyranny in all its forms.
♪ ♪