Ancient politics: the Agora

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

We often hear about democracy being rooted in ancient Greece, but where did ancient Greek democracy really occur? I mean, the central place of it all. Well, that must have definitely been the so called agora, the place where ordinary folk could trade goods of any kind, and where political topics of any kind could be discussed, various ideas be exchanged between thinkers with too much spare time on their hands like Aristotle and Plato.

The world certainly wouldn't be the same place if these agoras never existed. Because what was happening in that relatively narrow place by far transcended everyday trade transactions. It wasn't just a market, it was actually the place where new ideas were being forged, some of them continuing to echo to this day - in a sense, the very way the scientific method works, or the process of forging new laws, were both shaped up in the agora.

( Read more... )