Democracy Dies in Infancy - Athens Razed With its People

Didn't Athenian democracy start up in the 490s or 480s, after the start of the Roman Republic (510? 505?). The idea of democracy has existed before Athens, and in areas where Greco-Roman civilization never came into contact, either. The Iroquois, for example. As for others, I can't name any off the top of my head.

There's conjecture that the Romans fudged their dates (of course, they didn't actually USE dates for year numbering) a bit to try and get in the founding of the Republic to be earlier than the 'freeing' of Athens. There's a few years where there are no consuls with no real reason for it, suggesting that they simply stretched their dating back a bit.
 
Democracy was born independently many, many times in many places and cultures. Three examples that I can think of right now are:

-Some people argue that when the prophet Muhammad died and left behind no successor, he meant to have certain verses in the Qur'an to be interpreted as setting up a democracy. Even nowadays, there is no central authority in Islam.

-Many tribes in northern India before the coming of the Mughals (I think this is the right period of time, but can't remember exactly) had a system of democracy where an assembly of all people would elect a chief and pass laws, while a confederation of chiefs would coordinate any alliances.

-Some Native American tribes before the coming of Europeans also had a system similar to the one above.
 

Tellus

Banned
I dont think you can destroy viable ideas in the long run simply by burning a city to the ground.

The fall of Athens would change history, yes, but not enough to prevent future democracies, probably not even enough to meaningfully alter events so distant in time as ours. The impacts would be mostly felt in the few centuries following the event.
 
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