Ancient Greece

1
Ancient Greece

• Athens and Sparta

2
Sparta

• Dorian invaders from the north
• Forced conquered peoples to work for them
  HELOTS
• Built city-state in a vally
• Did not surround city-state with walls
• Developed into a highly militarized society

3
Spartan Society

• Three social groups
• Equals
• citizens descended from Dorian invaders
• Controlled city-state
• Land divided equally among equals and their
  families
• Helots worked land
• Half citizens
• Free, paid taxes, served in army
• Had no political power
• Farmed and lived in the towns
• Helots
• Slaves of the Spartan city-states
• Spartans used force to control them
• Hated the Spartans

4
Spartan government

• Assembly consisting of all adult male citizens
• Council of Elders proposed laws
• 2 kings
• 5 ephors overseers
• elected by assembly for one year terms
• Monitored kings and the citizens
• Unlimited power to act as guardians of the state

5
Spartan military

• Sparta regulated citizens lives
• Make every adult male citizen part of an
  efficient military machine
• Control helots
• Extend Spartan power
• Preparation for military life began at birth
• Weak children abandoned to die in countryside
• Age 7 boys left to live in barracks
• Learned to read and write
• Military training formed basis for education
• Inadequate clothing to learn endurance
• To learn to feed themselves, boys given little
  food expected to steal and not get caught
• Military career began at age 20 lasted to age 60
• Could marry at age 20, but could not live at home
  or go to marketplace until age 30
• Not allowed to engage in trade or business
• Spartan girls received strict physical training
  and training in patriotic devotion
• Boys and girls both studied music to learn
  coordination and discipline
• Strict discipline led to an efficient government
  and almost unconquerable military
• Sacrificed individual freedom and produced
  nothing in art, literature philosophy or science.

6
Athens

• Located on Attica peninsula
• Sea traders
• Built city inland to protect against pirates
  around rocky fortified hill of the Acropolis
• Social structure
• Citizens
• Athenian born men, regardless of wealth had full
  political rights
• Athenian women could not vote or hold office
• Metics
• Born outside Athens
• Paid taxes
• Worked as merchants or artisans
• Could not own land or take part in government
• Slaves
• Considered a necessity
• Captured in war
• Feed slaves became metics

7
Government in Athens

• Aristocratic government after end of monarchy
• Adult male citizens met in an assembly to elect
  generals and 9 archons rulers served 1 year
  office terms
• Archons appointed other officials
• Laws not written down
• Judges interpret and apply laws
• Political reform
• 600s B.C. suffer economic discontent
• Aristocrats began writing down laws
• Draconian law
• Metics and nobles became wealthy and farmers
  became poorer
• Citizens sold into slavery to pay debts

8

• Solon
• Archon beginning in 594 B.C.
• Mediated disputes between debtors and creditors
• Cancelled debts of poor, outlawed enslavement for
  debt, freed those enslaved for nonpayment of
  debts
• Divided Athenian society into 4 groups
• Only 3 wealthiest groups could hold public
  office
• All four could sit in assembly that elected
  public officials
• Limit power of judges with court composed of
  citizens
• Nobles formed political rival groups
• 546 B.C. Peisistratus seized power
• Wealthy aristocrat
• Developed following among lower class
• Improved economy and exiled nobles who disagreed
• Remained in power until 527 B.C.
• Sons continued power

9

• 508 B.C. Cleisthenes overthrew aristocrats and
  Athens into a democracy
• Ended division of Athens into 4 tribes
• Divided citizens into 10 tribes, which were
  subdivided into 100 smaller units
• Self governing power
• Chose members of Council of Five Hundred (50 from
  each tribe)
• Served for 1 year
• Could not serve more than 2 times
• Proposed laws
• Met 10 times per year
• Source of ultimate authority
• Courts
• Now democratic
• Jurors chosen by lot, voted by secret ballot
• Each man pleads his own case
• Direct Democracy all citizens participate
  directly in making decisions
• Representative democracies citizens elect
  representatives to run the government for them

10
Daily Life in Athens

• Balance of public and private life
• Farming
• More than ½ of Athenians farmed, many owned land
• Problems
• Farmlands had to lie unplanted every 2nd year for
  soil to gain fertility
• Much unsuitable for raising grain
• Grew olives, grapes and figs
• Terracing crafting small flat plots of land by
  building low walls on hillsides and filling space
  behind them with soil
• Principal domestic animals were sheep and goats
• Fish, cheese and grain made up diet
• Manufacturing and Trade
• Small workshops
• Artisans worked in homes
• Economy depended on trade
• Foreign trade a necessity to maintain and
  increase reliable food supply
• Athenian fleet traveled from the Black Sea to
  Spain

11

• Homes and Streets
• Built magnificent temples but lived in simple
  homes
• Believed money should be spent on the benefit of
  the community
• Buildings crowed on narrow crooked streets ,
  dirty and lacked sanitation
• Houses made of sun dried brick, one story
• No plumbing
• Residents collect water from fountains in jugs.
• Family Life
• Marriage important institution
• Bearing and raising children
• Arranged marriages
• Girls married at 13 or 14
• Groom 2x brides age
• Many women died in childbirth
• Babies abandoned if family could not afford them
• Women inferior to men
• Citizens
• Could not own or inherit property
• Could not make a contract or bring a suit in
  court

12

• Education and Military Service
• Literacy and education highly valued
• Many boys attended elementary schools
• Teachers not well paid
• Taught literature, music and gymnastics
• Wrote on wax covered wooden tablets
• 400s B.C. Sophists opened school for older boys
• Studied poetry, government, ethics, mathematics,
  etc.
• Rhetoric study of public speaking (oratory) and
  debating
• Age 18 received military training 1 year
• Wealthy could serve as a hoplite in the army
• Made up center of infantry in battle
• Poorer men served in army as flanks
• Citizens also rowed warships
• Traders spoke Greek
• Greek was second language for educated non-Greeks
• Many words today derived from Greek language
• Politics
• Democracy