Government in Ancient Greece

Democracy Democracy in Athens was the first one to be recorded in the history. There were 4 men who helped to bring this act of Athens: Draco, Solon, Pisistratus, and Cleisthenes. Draco codified Athenian laws to apply to his citizens, not just to the wealthy people. Solon increased the numbers if the archons from three to nine. Also, he made the council of Four Hundred, which drafted legislation by the citizen assembly to vote on.

Democracy Pisistratus drove many of the wealthy land owners out of the Attica peninsula and divided their lands up among the landless. Cleisthenes rearranged the tribes so that it could allow fairer representation of all classes of people within the assembly. He gave all citizens membership in the assembly, no matter they have land or not. On page 156 of your textbook there is a scenario of a typical meeting of the Athenian assembly.

Government in Sparta The Spartan’s had such as strong desire to strengthen a strong military state that it dominated all of their other concerns. The only people who qualified for Spartan citizens were adult males whose parents were from existing citizen families. This meant Sparta never had more than 10 000 official citizens. The majority of people living in Sparta were called helots these were people who were taken over by the Spartans and were commanded to become slaves. These helots had no political rights. Sparta had two hereditary kings, one was in charge of the military and the other was in charge of government.

Government in Sparta There was a Council of Elders, who were also called the Gerousia advised the kings on their decisions. The council consisted of 28 aristocrats who were over the age of 60. They constructed business for presentations to give to the Spartan assembly and they acted as a law court for some important cases There was an Assembly of Citizens, this included of all male citizens who were over the age of 30. They met each month on the outskirts of the city. They would explain and discuss legislation before the assembly. They would than vote on the proposals

Government in Sparta Five people were called the Ephors or the overseers. These people were elected each year by citizens, the Ephors held the most power. They directed the affairs of the state. The Ephors were allowed to do anything they could even arrest and prosecute Kings if it was necessary and they could declare punishment on any citizen they pleased. There was a pyramid of power: Kings Ephors Council of Elders (Gerousia) Assembly of Citizens.

Polis The development of ancient Greek Government began in the Dark ages with the emergence of the Polis-or city state. Each Greek polis developed its own independent form of government and protected its individuality fiercely. The citizens of the polis generally includes all adult males who were born in the state and who joined the army during the war time. Women, children, foreigners and slaves had no share in political power. By the religion, language and Olympic they can be unifying. Most early city-states were ruled by a monarch or a government headed by a king, in some city-states, the monarchy was hereditary.

Archon When the king of Athens lost much of his power, the position of archon was created. Land-holding aristocrat initially appointed to office for life. His responsibility was to supervise government administration. Later the Archons was increased from one to three. About 652B.C.E, it became the practice for a citizen assembly of landowners to elect the archons for a term of one year only.

Tyrant Who championed the cause of the middle class was able to seize power. When tyrants seized power, they often managed to keep it in their family for two or three generations. Most of them were good administration.

Law and Justice The archons made Draco a special administrator in 612 BCE; he was in charge of codifying the laws. This meant he was in charge of organizing a set of laws and punishments that would make it fairer to the Athenians. Only one of his laws survived so there are questions concerning his work on whether he really completed the code or not? The one surviving law was homicide. According to this law, a court would determine whether a murder was intentional or accidental. If the verdict was accidental murder, the family of the victim could pardon to the accused. If the family did not agree with the court’s decision the defendant could be banished from Attica.

Law and Justice Courts were more dominated by jurors instead of a judge. Juries had around 201-1501 people. Compared to the 12 we have today. You had to defend yourself in all cases, even in murder.

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