80 Books & arts The EconomistMarch 28th 2020
21Stanford University in a forthcoming pa-
per, the Athenian system evolved.
True, at least a quarter of the 300,000 or
so people who lived in or near the city
died—many, writes Ben Akrigg of Toronto
University in a recent book, because of dis-
rupted food supplies rather than the dis-
ease itself. But there is evidence that Athe-
nian institutions proved robust. Consider
the fate of Pericles, who had been elected as
one of the city’s ten military commanders
in each of the previous 30 years. As anger
surged, he was removed in mid-term—but
by democratic procedure, not a crazed
mob. The next year he was re-elected, only
to succumb to the plague himself.
Or take the continuity in the city’s artis-
tic life, including annual drama festivals
that required vast, expensive organisation.
As Jennifer Roberts of the City College of
New York notes, Athenians were presented
in 429bcwith “Oedipus Rex”, a milestone
in world literature. Its portrayal of a king
trying to assuage the wrath of Apollo,
which took the form of a deadly plague, res-
onated with audiences who half-suspected
that their city had offended the god. Amid
the strife of the next 30 years, dramatists
went on producing poignant tragedies and
rollicking farce.Democracy’s virtues
The key to this resilience, thinks Mr Ober,
was the “democratic advantage” enjoyed by
Athenians, in common with other societies
based on free speech and a broad franchise.
“We are a democracy,” Angela Merkel re-
minded Germans last week. “We don’t
achieve things by force, but through shared
knowledge and co-operation.” Much the
same went for ancient Athens, which at its
finest cherished truth-telling and held that
good information drove out bad.
The things the city did best, such as
staging performances, or building and
manning ships, required both state funds
and voluntary contributions from the
rich—what would now be called public-
private partnerships. And despite the
strain, these activities, and the sense of
mutual trust and public service that sus-
tained them, continued in the time of
plague. For example, against the odds in
429-428bcthe Athenians won a naval bat-
tle against a Peloponnesian fleet off the
coast of Patras.
These democratic virtues wavered in
the post-plague years, dominated as they
sometimes were by cynical demagogues;
but they did not vanish. It helped that the
oligarchs who seized power in 411bcwere
incompetent and only lasted a few
months—and that, after a bout of civil war,
the Spartans seemingly lost interest in
their vanquished foes’ affairs, whereupon
democracy was restored to Athens. To sur-
vive, it adapted.
Along with its artistic laurels, the bril-liant fifth century bchad seen the apogee
of the “demos”, the body of free male citi-
zens that was empowered to steer the city.
In the muted fourth century, the demos
was balanced by a judicial procedure under
which a citizen could be fined, even hypo-
thetically executed, if he took initiatives in
the assembly that misled the people or de-
viated from the constitution. That sounds
draconian, but Ms Carugati sees an analogy
with later judicial constraints on authority,
such as America’s Supreme Court.
After a grim epidemic, the Athenian
case suggests, tolerance for reckless deci-
sion-making declines. Meanwhile, al-though the haemorrhage of manpower
made it harder to wage war, prudent tactics
and canny diplomacy let a reformed Ath-
ens claw back influence in the endless con-
test between Greek states.
The impact of the plague, which flared
up again for several years, should not be
understated. It was part of a chain reaction
which led to the loss of Athens’s empire.
But such was the city’s will to live that it
rumbled on, more or less democratically,
for another eight decades, until its liberties
were suppressed by Macedonia in 322bc.
Today that endurance is as uplifting a pre-
cedent as the glorious Athenian heyday. 7A
rt basel hong kong, Asia’s biggest
contemporary-art fair, was cancelled
because of covid-19, but anyone who had
planned to visit last week could enjoy an
experimental alternative: the viewing
room. At the click of a keyboard, you could
enter a panoramic but private visual salon,
without having to brave the airless Hong
Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Participating galleries were told that,
for a quarter of the original fee, they could
have a slot in the online fair. Over 90% of
the line-up—231 galleries—gave it a whirl,
offering more than 2,000 works worth
$270m in total. The viewing room was a
telling indication of how art might be
shown (and sold) in the future, in a pan-
demic-stricken era or if travel is otherwise
restricted. It offered encouragement—and
some lessons on digital engagement.There, on one webpage, was Jeff Koons
riffing on Botticelli’s “Primavera” in a tri-
bute to the history of painting at David
Zwirner Gallery. Ota Fine Arts offered one
collector the chance to acquire an “infinity
room”, one of the most Instagrammed art-
works of recent years—the creation of the
psychedelic, nonagenarian Japanese artist,
Yayoi Kusama. White Cube presented an
array of international works by Andreas
Gursky (German), Theaster Gates (Ameri-
can) and Beatriz Milhazes (Brazilian).
But not every artist, gallery and form
showed to equal advantage in this alterna-
tive fair. Not surprisingly, simple two-di-
mensional works in bright colours came
across best. No sculpture or conceptual art
was included. Subtle pieces, such as Lucas
Arruda’s impressionistic desert-scapes,
which seem as much a mood or a state ofLike all cultural institutions, galleries and art fairs are adapting to a new realityArt on the internetThe online of beauty