How do ancient oligarchies compare with modern authoritarian regimes? How did civil war in oligarchies differ from civil war in democracies? What does the age-old ideological struggle between democracy and oligarchy imply about our future? These are just a few of the questions we discuss on this and the next episode.

This episode covers: what oligarchy actually is, and how this political form arose in the first place. The next episode – Oligarchy, Part 2: Nemesis – is going to be about the institutions of oligarchic regimes, how they maintained their power, and how they tended to break down in the end.

Joining us is ancient historian Matt Simonton of Arizona State University, author of the book Classical Greek Oligarchy, which won the Runciman Award in 2018. Stay tuned at the end of the episode for a chance to win an autographed, hard-cover edition of Classical Greek Oligarchy.

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The intro to this episode was provided by host Kate Armstrong of The Exploress Podcast, which time-travels through women's history, era by era, to explore their lives and their world. Check it out on your favorite app or at: theexploresspodcast.com

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Scholarly works mentioned during the conversation:

The First Democracies: Early Popular Government Outside Athens, by Eric W. Robinson

Democracy Beyond Athens: Popular Government in the Greek Classical Age, by Eric W. Robinson