Reacting to the Past

The Threshold of Democracy

The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 B.C.E. recreates the intellectual confrontations of a formative period in the human experience. After losing the Peloponnesian war to Sparta, Athens has restored its direct democracy, embodied by its 6,000-man Assembly. But doubts about democracy remain, brilliantly articulated by Socrates and his wealthy young acolytes. Should Athens retain its direct democracy? Should magistrates and other leaders continue to be chosen by random lottery? Should citizenship be broadened to include slaves who fought for Athenian democracy? What about foreign-born metics who pay taxes in its support? Should Athens restore the empire that extracted wealth from tribute-paying city-states throughout the eastern Mediterranean? The debates are informed by Plato’s Republic, as well as by Thucydides, Xenophon, and other contemporary sources. By examining democracy at its threshold, the game provides perspective on its subsequent evolution.