Transcript The Rise of Greece City

The Rise of Greece City-States
Polis
• Primary form of political and social
organization
• 3 interlocking ideas
– Geographical territory
– Community
– Political and economic independence
• Origin of many modern English words
– Policy & politician
Independent City-States
• City built around a defensible fortification called
an acropolis
• Average polis covered between 30 to 500
square miles. Athens covered 1,000 square
miles
• No professional bureaucracy, no professional
army, no professional politicians
• Extended community that included a family, a
clan, a brotherhood, and the polis, in that order
Life in the Polis
• Life centered around agora (marketplace)
• Divided into three groups
– Adult men: citizens with political rights
– Free people (women, children and resident
foreigners: no political rights
– Slaves: prisoners of war or for debt
• Girls were considered economic liabilities
since they had to be provided with
dowries before they could get married
Life in Polis continued
• Aristocrats controlled every aspect of
Greek society.
– Acted as judges and determined the laws.
– Major landowners.
– Monopoly over the military
• Colonization was motivated by a hunger
for land and a need for new agricultural
bases
– An explosion in commercial activities.
Change is in the Air
• Trade and commercial opportunities allowed commoners
to acquire wealth
• Bronze (expensive and materials are hard to find) gives
way to Iron (plentiful and inexpensive)
• Military strategy changes
– Hoplites and phalanx formations
Law codes
• Laws were enforced by aristocrats and
ruled as they saw fit
• Demands grew to force the aristocrats to
codify, or write down, the customary laws
and procedures governing the cities
• As the laws were made public for all to see
the rule of the aristocrats was brought to
an end
Writing stems into Lyric Poetry
• Focused on personal
feelings and emotions,
subjects with which
everyone, not just the
aristocracy could identify
• Sappho
– “Tenth Muse” ~ Plato
– Enormous influence on the
development of poetry
(Sapphic meter)
Solon the Lawgiver
• Social unrest leads to
new system
• Solon canceled debts and
abolished enslavement
for debt.
• Citizenship based on
wealth
– Public office was open to
the three upper classes
– Fourth class was ineligible
for public office
• Problems for poor
farmers continued
Peisistratus & Cleisthenes
• Peisistratus the Tyrant
– Wielding sole political power in violation of the established law, but with
the support of the people
– Beautified the city and increased the sense of being a Athenian by civic
festivals
• Cleisthenes democracy
– Mixed different tribes in hope to destroy the regional power of the
aristocracy
– Created Council of Five Hundred
– Direct democracy: all legislative and electoral power remained with the
popular assembly, made up of all voting citizens
Sparta
Sparta
• Covered by hills and mountains, isolation
contributed to the Spartan’s desire to be
left alone?
• Education focused entirely on physical
fitness and military training (men were full
time soldiers from 20 to 30 years of age)
• Women were to bear children, but were
also known for their wealth and indepence
• Almost no interest in the arts or philosophy