LO3

LO3 Citizens and Communities: The Greek City-States

• Acropolis: the high fortified citadel and religious center of an ancient Greek town 

City-States and Citizens 

• The notion of citizen participation seems to have originated partly in geography
• City-States started to develop when the Assyrians were reaching for power westward from Mesopotamia 
• An Athenian Owl- that was the slang name of this tetradrachma because of the owl, the sacred bird of Athena, on the reverse side
• Hoplite: a heavily armed and armored citizen-solider of ancient Greece 
• Phalanx: a unit of several hundred hoplites, who closed ranks by joining shields when approaching the enemy 
• Poorer citizens fought as light-armed infantry, harassing the enemy ahead of the phalanx's charge or covering its vulnerable flanks  
• "Alongside Mesopotamia and Egypt there now appeared a third great civilization: that of classical Greece" 

Monarchy, Oligarchy, Tyranny, Democracy 

• Monarchy: a state in which supreme power is held by a single, usually hereditary ruler 
• Triremes: massive fighting vessels with three banks of oars, used to ram or board enemy ships
• Tyranny: rule by a self-proclaimed dictator
• Democracy: in ancient Greece, a government in which all adult male citizens were entitled to take part in decisions 
• In the earliest times of classical Greek civilization, the communities that would become city-states were ruled by kinds and their leading companion warriors, as described in the epics of Homer
• But other city-states, particularly those that developed into large commercial centers, gave far more power to the majority
• In these large city-states, social conflicts sometime led to the emergence of tyranny 
• Like most tight-knit communities, Greek city-states were in many ways narrow and exclusive
• Sparta: The Military Ideal  
• The Spartans were the descendants of Greeks who had conquered part of the southern mainland, the territory of Laconia 
• Along with this government system there went a way of life that dedicated male citizens entirely to the service of the state 
• helots: non citizens forced to work for landholders in the ancient city-state of Sparta

Athens: Freedom and Power

• To the Athenians, the Spartan life was not worth living 
• Aristocrats: members of prominent and long-established Athenian families