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The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 B.C.E.
The Threshold of Democracy re-creates the intellectual dynamics of one of the most formative periods in Western history. In the wake of Athenian military defeat and rebellion, advocates of democracy have reopened the Assembly, but stability remains elusive. As members of the Assembly, players must contend with divisive issues like citizenship, elections, remilitarization, and dissent. Foremost among the troublemakers: Socrates.
252 pages, Paperback
First published December 15, 2013
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About the author
Josiah Ober
31 books35 followersJosiah Ober is Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis Professor in honor of Constantine Mitsotakis, and Professor of Classics and Political Science, at Stanford University.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 29, 2020
I taught out of this textbook during Fall 2020 (and Fall 2019 and Fall 2018) as part of a first-year experience class in Western Civilization.
Ober and his coauthors Naomi J. Norman and Mark C. Carnes present a role-playing game for students. They adopt characters from 5th Century BCE Athens who are debating with each other about how to move forward after battling with Sparta for 27 years and after Critias and the Thirty Tyrants rules the city-state of Athens with a heavy hand.
The factions are the Solonian Aristocrats, the Periclean Democrates, the Thrasybulian Democrats (more radical than the Pericleans), and the Socratics. There are also characters who are not part of a faction (merchant/metic, athlete, trades people, dramatist, rhetorician and most notably the historian Thucydides). Their votes when aligned with existing factions (or when a student in character does the work to form a coalition) can help carry legislation forward.
The book contains maps, timelines, and information about culture, politics, geography, warfare, economics, politics, and philosophy. Fully half of the book contains core texts, chiefly large portions of Plato's _Republic_. Students are invited to read that and 7 other shorter works in order to learn about the ancient issues.
The core texts were challenging for 21st Century students. I had nonmajors who did not have the background. I had to do a lot to summarize The Republic for them. I ended up creating quizzes and having them select key passages for interpretation.
I think some of the challenges are as follows: 1. They are nonmajors 2. These texts are dependent on a culture that is 2500 years old. 3. Socrates (the main speaker in The Republic) rarely states directly what he means, particularly in the first section about justice. His method of dialectic involves sifting through a lot of nontruths or half truths before distilling down to his ideals. 4. The game is more fun than reading the book, so students elaborated on petty rivalries, emotions, odd biographical details and other trivialities more often than they invested deeply in questions about government, virtue, citizenship, and forging alliances.
As I teach this book again and again, I am assigning fewer passages from the Republic. Less is more. I find that I need to cover material more than once to help these 18 yo non-majors glean important information. The passages from the Republic I highlight are as follows:
* The sophist / rhetorician Thrasymachus pitching his fit about Socrates asking too many questions
* Ring of Gyges and a little more from Glaucon's definition of Justice
* The parade of vocations as part of the argument for specialization (leading up to philosopher-kings as specialists) that help illustrate who else populates the city besides the philosophers and sophists.
[I skip the section on education and censorship. Maybe I'll add this later.]
* Tri-part soul / noble lie of gold, silver, and brass/iron souls
* The four cardinal virtues
* Philosophers' role over truth vs opinion of the rest
* allegory of the ship captain
* sophists and the dangers of democracy / mob (beast) empowering demogogues
* critique of democracy after the description of oligarchy.
The excerpts from the Republic do NOT include the Allegory of the Cave. There is a brief passage included about forms with a footnote about the Allegory of the Cave that I amplify with a Ted-Ed animated video.
Ober and his coauthors Naomi J. Norman and Mark C. Carnes present a role-playing game for students. They adopt characters from 5th Century BCE Athens who are debating with each other about how to move forward after battling with Sparta for 27 years and after Critias and the Thirty Tyrants rules the city-state of Athens with a heavy hand.
The factions are the Solonian Aristocrats, the Periclean Democrates, the Thrasybulian Democrats (more radical than the Pericleans), and the Socratics. There are also characters who are not part of a faction (merchant/metic, athlete, trades people, dramatist, rhetorician and most notably the historian Thucydides). Their votes when aligned with existing factions (or when a student in character does the work to form a coalition) can help carry legislation forward.
The book contains maps, timelines, and information about culture, politics, geography, warfare, economics, politics, and philosophy. Fully half of the book contains core texts, chiefly large portions of Plato's _Republic_. Students are invited to read that and 7 other shorter works in order to learn about the ancient issues.
The core texts were challenging for 21st Century students. I had nonmajors who did not have the background. I had to do a lot to summarize The Republic for them. I ended up creating quizzes and having them select key passages for interpretation.
I think some of the challenges are as follows: 1. They are nonmajors 2. These texts are dependent on a culture that is 2500 years old. 3. Socrates (the main speaker in The Republic) rarely states directly what he means, particularly in the first section about justice. His method of dialectic involves sifting through a lot of nontruths or half truths before distilling down to his ideals. 4. The game is more fun than reading the book, so students elaborated on petty rivalries, emotions, odd biographical details and other trivialities more often than they invested deeply in questions about government, virtue, citizenship, and forging alliances.
As I teach this book again and again, I am assigning fewer passages from the Republic. Less is more. I find that I need to cover material more than once to help these 18 yo non-majors glean important information. The passages from the Republic I highlight are as follows:
* The sophist / rhetorician Thrasymachus pitching his fit about Socrates asking too many questions
* Ring of Gyges and a little more from Glaucon's definition of Justice
* The parade of vocations as part of the argument for specialization (leading up to philosopher-kings as specialists) that help illustrate who else populates the city besides the philosophers and sophists.
[I skip the section on education and censorship. Maybe I'll add this later.]
* Tri-part soul / noble lie of gold, silver, and brass/iron souls
* The four cardinal virtues
* Philosophers' role over truth vs opinion of the rest
* allegory of the ship captain
* sophists and the dangers of democracy / mob (beast) empowering demogogues
* critique of democracy after the description of oligarchy.
The excerpts from the Republic do NOT include the Allegory of the Cave. There is a brief passage included about forms with a footnote about the Allegory of the Cave that I amplify with a Ted-Ed animated video.
January 1, 2026
I read The Threshold of Democracy as part of my Greek Civilization course (CLAS 270), where we used it as the central text for our final Reacting to the Past (RTTP) roleplay game for our final set in Athens, 403 B.C.E. I was cast in the Socratic faction as Crito, and proudly led our group to victory over the Pericleans, Thrasybulans, Indeterminates, Priestesses, and Solonians. So, from a gameplay and engagement perspective, this book was a great resource—but with some caveats.
The strength of the book lies in how it frames the dramatic political tensions of post–Peloponnesian War Athens, offering just enough background to set the stage and provide a scaffolding for the roleplay. The curated primary source excerpts (from Plato, Xenophon, Thucydides, etc.) and structured role materials gave us the initial momentum to start playing, debating, and strategizing. However, to really bring your character to life—especially someone like Crito—you must go beyond the book.
Most of my deeper understanding came from external research: reading more of Plato’s dialogues, understanding Athenian law and political factions, and finding my faction’s historical voice. While this is an intentional part of the RTTP pedagogy (students are meant to take charge of their own learning), it does mean that this book functions better as a launchpad than a comprehensive text.
If you’re looking for a standalone historical resource, this won’t give you everything. But if you’re using it as part of an immersive classroom experience, especially in RTTP games, it can be incredibly effective—if you’re willing to put in the extra work.
Overall, I’m rating this 3 stars not because it lacks value, but because it requires so much supplemental effort to shine. For students like me who enjoy roleplay, historical debate, and academic drama, that’s part of the fun—but others might find it a steep curve!
The strength of the book lies in how it frames the dramatic political tensions of post–Peloponnesian War Athens, offering just enough background to set the stage and provide a scaffolding for the roleplay. The curated primary source excerpts (from Plato, Xenophon, Thucydides, etc.) and structured role materials gave us the initial momentum to start playing, debating, and strategizing. However, to really bring your character to life—especially someone like Crito—you must go beyond the book.
Most of my deeper understanding came from external research: reading more of Plato’s dialogues, understanding Athenian law and political factions, and finding my faction’s historical voice. While this is an intentional part of the RTTP pedagogy (students are meant to take charge of their own learning), it does mean that this book functions better as a launchpad than a comprehensive text.
If you’re looking for a standalone historical resource, this won’t give you everything. But if you’re using it as part of an immersive classroom experience, especially in RTTP games, it can be incredibly effective—if you’re willing to put in the extra work.
Overall, I’m rating this 3 stars not because it lacks value, but because it requires so much supplemental effort to shine. For students like me who enjoy roleplay, historical debate, and academic drama, that’s part of the fun—but others might find it a steep curve!
March 14, 2018
Had to read this for a class on the Ancient World, where we're Role Playing as characters from Ancient Greece.
This is a relatively easy read, considering it just explains the rules of the game, but also explains the history of Athens leading up to the start of the game. It was an easy, yet somewhat boring read for me.
This is a relatively easy read, considering it just explains the rules of the game, but also explains the history of Athens leading up to the start of the game. It was an easy, yet somewhat boring read for me.
November 8, 2023
lost about 3 years of my life working on this roleplaying game—this was not real.
Read
September 25, 2024History roleplay... where do I begin
December 13, 2024
I won the game btw
October 7, 2025
I, in fact, did not win the game.
November 3, 2016
This is a well-designed game/simulation with wonderful resources and sets the students up for an excellent learning experience. I had a lot of fun doing this and just wish I'd had more time to take full advantage of all the resources, but boy the Athenian Assembly issues of citizenship and voting rights and foreign policy were sure relevant to today.
I recommended this to all my friends who are teachers or homeschoolers even if their kids aren't old enough yet, so you can add it to your curriculum. I'd love to see Marie's Abner and Jane with their homeschool group do this game one day -- maybe I could be the gamemaster, sigh, wouldn't that be nice?
I recommended this to all my friends who are teachers or homeschoolers even if their kids aren't old enough yet, so you can add it to your curriculum. I'd love to see Marie's Abner and Jane with their homeschool group do this game one day -- maybe I could be the gamemaster, sigh, wouldn't that be nice?
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews