Chapter 4:

Section 4.2:

Ancient Greece (1900-133 B.C.)

The Greek City-States

Main Ideas:

The polis or city-state was the central focus of Greek life.

The search for farmland and the growth of trade resulted in colonies and
the spread of Greek culture and politics.

Vocabulary:

city-state - a city with political and economic control over the surrounding
countryside
polis city-state, that could be a town, a city, or even a village, along with
its surrounding countryside. The town, city, or village served as the center
of the polis where people could meet for political, social, and religious
activities.
acropolis - the main gathering place in the polis that served as a place of
refuge during an attack and sometimes came to be a religious center on
which temples and public buildings were built
agora - in early Greek city-states, an open area that served as a gathering
place and as a market
hoplite in the early Greek military system, heavily armed foot soldiers
phalanx - a wall of shields created by foot soldiers marching close
together in a rectangular formation.
democracy - the rule of the many, government by the people, either
directly or through their elected representatives
oligarchy - the rule of the few, a form of government in which a small
group of people exercises controls
colony - a settlement of people living in a new territory, linked with the
parent country by trade and direct government control
helot - in ancient Sparta, captive peoples who were forced to work for
their conquerors
ephor - one of the five men elected each year in ancient Sparta who were
responsible for the education of youth and the conduct of all citizens

People:

Aristotle - Greek philosopher who argued that a citizen did not belong
just to himself, but as belonging to the state
Solon - a reform minded aristocrat that canceled all land debts and freed
people who had fallen into slavery for debts
Cleisthenes - an Athenian reformer that created throughout a series of
reforms the foundations for the Athenian democracy:
he created a new council that supervised foreign affairs
He oversaw the treasury
He proposed a series of laws that would be voted on an open and
free debate by a group of citizens that had a central role in the
Athenian political system.

Places:

Athens biggest city-state of Greece with a population of more than

three hundred thousand (300,000)
Hellespont and Bosporus cities where Greeks spread their culture
and political ideas
Byzantium most notable city and the site of what later became
Constantinople
Sparta Greek city-state that conquered Laconia and Messenia.

Events:

750 B.C. The city-state is the central focus of Greek life.

700 B.C. Hoplites become a new military order
600 B.C. Colonization leads to increased trade and industry.

Questions:

Who lived in the polis? citizens with political rights (adult males),
citizens with no political rights (women and children), and noncitizens
(slaves and resident aliens).
How did Athens and Sparta differ?
The two cities of Athens and Sparta were bitter rivals in ancient times in
Greece. Geographically they are very close to each other, but very
different in their values, life styles, and culture.
Athens
The capital and the largest city of Greece.
Located in Greece
Population: 140,000
Region: Attica
Climate: Mediterranean
Economy based on trade and agriculture
Culture: Forward Looking
Not as military based, as military service was
optional
Democratic
Ionian descendants
No girls education

Sparta
The city lies at the southern en
Laconian plain, on the river ban
River.
Located in Greece
Population: 100,000
Region: Laconia
Climate: fairly but very dry
Dependent on agriculture
Culture: Laid back
mandatory military service

Oligarchic
Descendants of the Dorian inva
Girls education

What role did tyrants play in Greek history?

Greek tyrants were rulers who seized power by force from the aristocrats.
Support for the tyrants came not only from the new rich who had made
their money in trade and industry, but also from poor peasants who were
in debt to landholding aristocrats. Both the rich and the peasants were
tired of aristocratic domination of their city-states. The tyrants gained
power and kept it by using hired soldiers. Once in power, they built new
marketplaces, temples, and walls. These constructions glorified the city
but, more importantly, increased the tyrants popularity.
What responsibilities did the citizens of the polis have?
Citizens had to serve in the government and defend the polis in time of
war.

What political dilemma was caused by the expansion of trade and

industry?
When the merchants got richer from trade they wanted more political
power, but the political power was only held by aristocrats.
What role did tyrants play in the development of Greek forms of
government?
They opened the door and paved the road towards democracy. They
weakened the power of Aristocracy and Aristocrats.
How did the restrictions placed on Spartan males affect their
lives?
Spartan men remained in the active reserve until age sixty. Men were
encouraged to marry at age twenty but could not live with their families
until they left their active military service at age thirty.
How did Cleisthenes create the foundation for democracy in
Athens?
Cleisthenes believed in equal rights for all citizens. This made him many
enemies in the oligarchy, because equal rights for all citizens meant less
power for the oligarchs. Cleisthenes is best known for introducing the
system of democracy in the city. To do this, he reformed the political
system by constructing ten demes (municipalities) in Athens; then
allocating to each deme 50 representatives in the Athenian boule
(parliament).

Explain the different political systems in Athens and Sparta.

Athens was a direct democracy and Sparta's was a oligarchy. An oligarchy
is a government in which only a few people rule.
Summarize why the Greeks left their homelands to establish
colonies.
Greeks left their homeland to settle in distant lands and established
colonies mainly because their desire for good farmland and because the
growth of trade. Colonies became new polis that were usually
independent of the polis that had founded it.
Young People in Greece:
In Sparta, boys were trained to be soldiers.
Spartan children were examined at birth by state officials, who decided whether the child
was fit to live.
Children judged unfit were left on a mountainside to die.
Boys judged fit were taken from their mothers at the age of seven and put under control of
the state.
Fitted boys were subjected to harsh discipline to make them tough and mean.
Their education stressed military training and obedience to authority.
After they were twelve years old, they were no longer allowed to wear any undergarments,
they had one coat to serve them a year; their bodies were hard and dry, with but little
acquaintance of baths.
Basically, the Spartan system worked, and Spartan males were known for their toughness,
their meanness, and as the best soldiers in all of Greece.
Spartan girls received an education similar to that of the boys.
Girls underwent physical training, including running, wrestling, and throwing the javelin.
The purpose was clear: to strengthen the girls for their roles as healthy mothers.
Well-to-do Athenian citizens raised their children very differently.
Athenian children were nurtured by their mothers until the age of seven.
At seven, a boy of the upper class was turned over to a male servant, known as a
pedagogue, who was usually a slave who accompanied the child to school.
He was also responsible for teaching his charge good manners.
He could punish the child with a birch rod to impose discipline.
The purpose of an education for upper-class Athenian boys was to create a well- rounded
person.
To that end, a boy had three teachers:
o One taught him reading, writing, and arithmetic.
o Another taught physical education, a necessity to achieve the ideal of a sound mind in
a sound body.
o A third taught him music, which consisted of playing the lyre (a stringed instrument)
and singing.
Education ended at 18, when an Athenian male formally became a citizen.
Girls of all classes remained at home, as their mothers did.
Their mothers taught them how to run a home, which included how to spin and weave
activities expected of a good wife.
Only in some wealthy families did girls learn to read, write, and perhaps play the lyre.
The Polis: Center of Greek life:
By 750 B.C., the city-stateor what the Greeks called a polisbecame the central focus of
Greek life.
Our word politics is derived from the Greek word polis. In a physical sense, the polis was a
town, a city, or even a village, along with its surrounding countryside.
The town or city served as the center of the polis where people could meet for political,

social, and religious activities.

The main gathering place in the polis was usually a hill, and at the top of it was a fortified
area called an acropolis.
The acropolis served as a place of refuge during an attack and sometimes came to be a
religious center on which temples and public buildings were built.
Below the acropolis was an agora, an open area that served as a place where people could
assemble and as a market.
City-states:
o varied greatly in size and population.
Athens had a population of more than three hundred thousand, but most city-states were
much smaller than Athens, with only a few hundred to several thousand people.
The polis was, above all, a community of people who shared a common identity and common
goals.
As a community, the polis consisted of:
o citizens with political rights (adult males)
o citizens with no political rights (women and children)
o noncitizens (slaves and resident aliens).
Citizens of a polis had rights, but these rights were coupled with responsibilities.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle argued that a citizen did not belong just to himself or
herself: We must rather regard every citizen as belonging to the state. However, the
loyalty that citizens had to their city-states had a negative side, because city-states
distrusted one another, and the division of Greece into fiercely patriotic independent units
helped to bring about its ruin.
As the polis developed, so too did a new military system.
In earlier times, wars in Greece had been fought by aristocratic cavalry soldiers
nobles on horseback, who were large landowners that dominated the political life of their
city-states.
By 700 B.C., however, the military system was based on hoplites, who were heavily armed
infantry soldiers, or foot soldiers. Each carried a round shield, a short sword, and a thrusting
spear about nine feet (2.7 m) long.
Hoplites went into battle as a unit, marching shoulder to shoulder in a rectangular formation
known as a phalanx. This close formation created a wall of shields to protect the hoplites.
As long as they kept their order, it was difficult for enemies to harm them.

Greek Colonies:
Between 750 and 550 B.C., large numbers of Greeks left their homeland to settle in distant
lands.
Two important factors in the peoples decisions to move were:
o a desire for good farmland
o the growth of trade
Each colony became a new polis. This new polis was usually independent of the polis that
had founded it.
New Greek colonies were established across the Mediterranean coastlines of southern Italy,
southern France, eastern Spain, and northern Africa west of Egypt.
At the same time, to the north, the Greeks set up colonies in Thrace, where they sought
good farmland to grow grains.
The Greeks also settled along the shores of the Black Sea, setting up cities on the
Hellespont and the Bosporus.
The most notable of these cities was Byzantium, the site of what later became
Constantinople (now Istanbul). In establishing these colonies, the Greeks spread their
culture and political ideas throughout the Mediterranean.

Colonization also led to increased trade and industry.

The Greeks on the mainland exported pottery, wine, and olive oil.
In return, they received grains and metals from the west and fish, timber, wheat, metals,
and slaves from the Black Sea region.

The expansion of trade and industry created a new group of wealthy individuals in many of
the Greek city-states.
These men wanted political power, but found it difficult to gain because of the power of the
ruling aristocrats.

Tyranny in the City-States:

The creation of this new group of rich men fostered the rise of tyrants in the seventh and
sixth centuries B.C.
Tyrants were not necessarily oppressive or wicked, as our word tyrant implies.
Greek tyrants were rulers who seized power by force from the aristocrats.
Support for the tyrants came not only from the new rich who had made their money in trade
and industry, but also from poor peasants who were in debt to landholding aristocrats.
Both the rich and the peasants were tired of aristocratic domination of their city-states.
The tyrants gained power and kept it by using hired soldiers.
Once in power, they built new marketplaces, temples, and walls.
These constructions glorified the city but, more importantly, increased the tyrants popularity.
Despite their achievements, however, tyrants had fallen out of favor by the end of the sixth
century B.C.
Greeks believed in the rule of law, and tyranny was an insult to that ideal.
Although tyranny did not last, it played an important role in Greek history.
The rule of the tyrants had ended the rule of the aristocrats in many city-states.
The end of tyranny then allowed many new people to participate in government.
In some Greek city- states, this led to the development of democracy, which is government
by the people or rule of the many.
Other city-states remained committed to government by an oligarchy, rule by the few.
The differences in how Greek city-states were governed can be understood by examining the
two most famous and most powerful Greek city-states, Sparta and Athens.
Sparta:
Like other Greek city-states, Sparta was faced with the need for more land.
Instead of sending its people out to start new colonies, as some states did, the Spartans
conquered the neighboring Laconians.
Later, beginning around 730 B.C., the Spartans undertook the conquest of neighboring
Messenia despite its larger size and population.
After their conquest, the Messenians and Laconians became serfs and were made to work for
the Spartans.
These captured people were known as helots, a name derived from a Greek word for
capture.
To ensure control over the conquered helots, the Spartans made a conscious decision to
create a military state.
A Military State:
Between 800 and 600 B.C., the lives of Spartans were rigidly organized and tightly controlled
(thus, our word spartan, meaning highly self- disciplined).
Males spent their childhood learning military discipline, enrolled the army at 20, and
continued to live in the military barracks until 30.
At 30, Spartan males were allowed to vote in the assembly and live at home, but they stayed
in the army until the age of 60.
While their husbands lived in the barracks, Spartan women lived at home.
Because of this separation, Spartan women had greater freedom of movement and greater
power in the household than was common elsewhere in Greece.
Spartan women were expected to exercise and remain fit to bear and raise healthy children.
Many Spartan women upheld the strict Spartan values, expecting their husbands and sons to
be brave in war.
The story is told of a Spartan woman who, as she was handing her son his shield, told him to
come back carrying his shield or being carried on it.

Government of Sparta:
The Spartan government was an oligarchy headed by two kings, who led the Spartan army
on its campaigns.
A group of five men, known as the ephors, were elected each year and were responsible for
the education of youth and the conduct of all citizens.
A council of elders, composed of the two kings and 28 citizens over the age of 60, decided on
the issues that would be presented to an assembly made up of male citizens.
This assembly did not debate; it only voted on the issues.
To make their new military state secure, the Spartans turned their backs on the outside world.
Foreigners, who might have brought in new ideas, were discouraged from visiting.
Except for military reasons, Spartans were not allowed to travel abroad, where they might
encounter ideas dangerous to the stability of the state.
Likewise, Spartan citizens were discouraged from studying philosophy, literature, or the arts
subjects that might encourage new thoughts.
The art of war was the Spartan ideal.
All other arts were frowned upon.
Athens:

By 700 B.C., Athens had become a unified polis on the peninsula of Attica.
Early Athens was ruled by a king.
By the seventh century B.C., however, Athens had become an oligarchy under the control of its
aristocrats.
These aristocrats owned the best land and controlled political life.
There was an assembly of all the citizens, but it had few powers.
Near the end of the seventh century B.C., Athens faced political turmoil because of serious
economic problems.
Many Athenian farmers were sold into slavery when they were unable to repay their debts to their
aristocratic neighbors. Over and over, there were cries to cancel the debts and give land to the
poor.
Athens seemed on the verge of civil war.
The ruling Athenian aristocrats reacted to this crisis in 594 B.C. by giving full power to Solon, a
reform- minded aristocrat.
o Solon canceled all land debts and freed people who had fallen into slavery for debts.
o He refused, however, to take land from the rich and give it to the poor.
o His reforms, though popular, did not solve the problems of Athens because aristocrats were
still powerful, and poor peasants could not obtain land.
o Internal strife finally led to the very thing Solon had hoped to avoid tyranny.
Pisistratus was an aristocrat, seized power in 560 B.C.
o He aided Athenian trade as a way of pleasing the merchants.
o He also gave aristocrats land to the peasants in order to gain the favor of the poor.
o The Athenians rebelled against Pisistratuss son, who had succeeded him, and ended the
tyranny in 510 B.C.
Two years later, with the backing of the Athenian people, Cleisthenes, another reformer, gained
the upper hand.
o Cleisthenes created a new council of five hundred that supervised foreign affairs,
o He oversaw the treasury, and proposed the laws that would be voted on by the assembly.
o The Athenian assembly, composed of male citizens, was given final authority to pass laws
after free and open debate.
o Because the assembly of citizens now had the central role in the Athenian political system,
the reforms of Cleisthenes created the foundations for Athenian democracy.