Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 B.C.

by Mark C. Carnes, Josiah Ober

Innovative and engaging, The Threshold of Athens in 403 B.C. explores the intellectual dynamics of democracy by recreating the historical context that shaped its evolution. Part of the “Reacting to the Past” series, this text consists of elaborate games in which students are assigned roles, informed by classic texts, set in particular moments of intellectual and social ferment. Issues of the time are sorted out by a polity fractured into radical and moderate democrats, oligarchs, and Socratics, among others.

118 pages, Paperback

First published November 2, 2004

About the author

Mark C. Carnes is Professor of History at Barnard College.

Reviews

[Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pleasantly surprised by this roleplaying game. I think it would have been a lot more engaging had we not been trying to play asynchronously in Canvas page comment fora, but that's not the book's fault. It was a nice way to get a street level look at ancient Greek civics.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread: Jan. 2021
Still love this game. Didn't love it as much on Zoom. 🙃

Read: Feb. 2020
This was really fun, and I look forward to running this game again next spring, now that I have it under my belt. Students seemed to enjoy it a great deal!