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P. 49
3 Every man
has a voice
Democracy
Greece, 507 BC
Chosen by Dr Peter Jones, formerly
of Newcastle University
Democracy was invented in 507 BC by an
Athenian called Cleisthenes. Over the
course of the next 100 years in Athens and
elsewhere in the Greek world it developed
into a full-blown radical system where all
A 15th-century map of the world illustrating a Latin
male citizens over 18 took all decisions
edition of Ptolemy’s Geography
about the running of their own state. The
consequence was that there was no such
thing as politicians. Even a great Athenian
political figure like Pericles had no authority 4 Seeing the world as it is
over the people’s assembly. All he could do
was try to persuade them that his view of
things was right, but if they didn’t like it
then they could reject it. Ptolemy’s Geography
Athenian democracy has been heavily
debated, but I think that it was remarkably Roman empire, c150 AD
successful. It ran for 180 years until it was Chosen by Professor Jerry Brotton, Queen Mary
destroyed by the Macedonians in 323 BC,
and while the charge has been made that it University of London
was like mob rule, the Athenians strike me
as having been admirably governed. In around AD 150, Ptolemy was the likes of Christopher Columbus
I believe the people were perfectly capable working in the library of Alexandria, and some of the Portuguese
of taking sensible decisions. To give one then one of the greatest repositories explorers who were sailing east,
example, they could, being the people who of Greek learning. He wrote his such as Vasco da Gama.
made all the decisions, have voted Geography, which defined the Ptolemy is known as the father of
themselves bags of gold and pensions for discipline of geography and laid down geography and for 1,500 years
life – but they never did. the principles of global mapping. everything pivoted around him. Even
Modern ‘democracy’ can be traced back There were no maps in the book but the modern map is based on the kind
to Athens, yet what we in the UK live in what the Geography offered was a of projections that Ptolemy offered.
today is actually an elective oligarchy, geographical description In a way, Ptolemy was a kind of
where we choose 650 MPs to make of the world and an explanation of classical Google. Google gives you
decisions on our behalf. There is nothing how maps could be drawn. It allowed the tools to map as you want – wheth-
wrong with elective oligarchy per se, but scholars to map the world for the first er to see your own home, or Washing-
I wish that it were not called democracy time in history. ton DC, or Korea. Well, in a sense,
because it seems to me that the Athenian Interestingly, the text wasn’t really that is what Ptolemy did. He didn’t
experiment was so remarkable, powerful taken up initially. This was in the late proscribe what geography is, but said
and appealing compared to the feeble Hellenistic, early Christian moment here are the tools to understand your
version we have today. Evidence: the and Christianity had no interest in the place in the world, and that for me is
handling of the MPs’ expenses scandal. rather abstract geometrical math- why he is so enduring.
ematical notion of how you plot the
world on a map. It was the Arabs who
kept Ptolemy going, in places like
Baghdad until it reappeared in Italy in
Peter Jones is the author of the 14th century. Renaissance
Vote for Caesar: How the geographers produced new editions Jerry Brotton is the
GETTY/REX Ancient Greeks and Romans Ptolemy’s principles to try to map the author of A History of
of the Geography and employed
the World in Twelve
Solved the Problems of Today
expanding world. It was also used by
(Orion, 2009)
Maps (Penguin, 2013)
The Story of Science & Technology 49
