Kwestie peloponeskie. Demokracja przeciw prawu. Hybris radykałów
Peloponnesian issues. Democracy against the law. Hybris of radicals

Summary/Abstract: The defeat of the Hellenes in the Peloponnesian war in the 5th century B. C. happened a number of centuries after a deathly silence following the Trojan War and so called dark ages (lasting three centuries) as well as after popular stories on heroes of Mycenae and after poetic (Homer) times of storytelling. Those stories created an idea organizing a new world of archaic Greeks. The Peloponnesian events closed - in a way again - the certain order; this time it was the order of democrats characterized by the hubris of aristocracy (Athens) and the order of oligarchs characterized by the arrogance of democrats (Sparta). While the Trojan war prepared the fall of king Agamemnon, the Athens' war prepared the king's come back, this time the Macedonian one, who - craving for the fame of an Achaean hero -followed the path of a Mycenae ruler. Finally, the Peloponnesian war did not bring success of some Greek poleis or the whole Greece. Results of this war are expressed by a conclusion on the common Peloponnesian failure. It was a clash of interests of oligarchic order with democracy. What is important, a serious conflict arose: populist (majority) democracy against law and justice. This conflict was possible due to the lack of any institution of a public arbiter or moral authority, which could prevent a fall of moderation as an essential (sine qua non) feature of democracy (Solon). There is no democracy without moderation and self-resistance.

• Details
• Contents