6. The development of Greek political assemblies
is to a great extent still obscure. We do not know how
the majority of Greek assemblies actually functioned
at any time of their history. Even for Sparta we are
confined to the interpretation of a few (and not very
coherent) pieces of evidence. The only assembly we
know well is the Athenian ecclesia, and even here our
evidence begins to be reliable only from the fifth cen-
tury B.C. Seen from the angle of classical Athens, what
characterized a political assembly was the extent of
its powers as the legislative, judicial, and policy-making
body. Equally remarkable was the extent to which an
ordinary citizen could initiate business or advocate
policies from the floor. It may well be that Athens took
a lead in the creation of what, in the fifth century B.C.,
became known as democratic government, though it
has been claimed that Athens was preceded by some
Ionian cities of Asia Minor. Many of the Greek States
(including Sparta) never granted such powers to their
assemblies and never allowed comparable freedom of
speech in political meetings. The time and modality
of the introduction of important parliamentary fea-
tures, such as the counting of votes, the regularity of
meetings, the
quorum for the validity of certain deci-
sions, the qualifications for participation in the meet-
ings, the formalities of the relations between the gen-
eral assembly and other bodies (city council, king's
advisers, priestly colleges), are either unknown or
imperfectly known.
The earliest descriptions of Greek assemblies are of
course to be found in Homer. They are a good example
of the problems which Greek assemblies pose for the
modern researcher. Any reader of the assembly scenes
in the Iliad is entitled to ask whether such scenes reflect
any historical reality: this is a part of a more general
question about the value of the Iliad as historical evi-
dence. We have less difficulty with the evidence on
assemblies provided by the Odyssey because it obvi-
ously reflects some acquaintance with the political
assemblies of the Greek polis of the archaic age. Life
in the Greek camp near Troy may be the product of
the imagination of the poet of the Iliad, but the meet-
ings at Ithaca or among the Phaeacians seem to be
of the sort a poet might see for himself when he
wandered about Greece. The sensible middle way
seems to be to use the evidence of the Iliad about
assemblies only when it is in basic agreement with that
of the Odyssey. But we must always bear in mind that
very little is certain about the historic reality of the
institutions described by Homer and that, even in the
most optimistic assessment, we are still left in the dark
about the time, the places and the coherence of the
political experience reflected by the Odyssey.
Five features characterize the Homeric assemblies:
1) The assemblies described by Homer are irregular:
they are convoked in special circumstances. 2) They
may be summoned by “important” individuals: neither
kings nor magistrates seem to have the exclusive right
to summon an assembly, though it would obviously be
unthinkable to have one summoned by ordinary mem-
bers of the city or of the army. 3) The assembly listens
to “important” people and signifies approval or dis-
approval, but does not vote. 4) Intervention from the
floor in the exceptional case of Thersites in the Iliad
is clearly considered scandalous (yet it does happen).
5) Decision may mean either that dissent is ultimately
eliminated by pressure or persuasion or that contrasting
groups will ultimately act in contrasting ways. No
Homeric assembly ends in civil war, but the danger
is implicit in the whole course of action.
