Demetrio del Fàlero e la democrazia ateniese

The aim of the paper is to understand the meaning, in Demetrius of Phalerum’s work, of the word demokratia, with whom he describes the regime established in 317, after a covenant between him and Cassander. In the surviving fragments of Demetrius’ literary works, it is possible to identify four main topics by which we can grasp his idea of the Athenian democratic history, therefore of democracy as political government : the first one is the picture of Solon as founder of democracy ; the second one is the development of ostracism, which parallels the decline of the polis ; the third one is the reappraisal of Aristides’ career as a symbol of the golden age of that polity ; the last one is the hostile relation of the city with the philosophers, culminated in the process against Socrates. The close analysis of these topics let understand that Demetrius thought that in the years after the Persian Wars Athens was driven by a positive Areopagitic democracy, which degenerated, in the following years, in a radical, antiphilosophical regime.