Greece Notes #5

During the seventh and sixth centuries, aristocrats ran the government in most of Greece

• Back then, as right now, rich people wielded much influence in society, and held much government power, than middle to poor classes.
• Aristocrats: members of the ruling class.
• Aristocrats attended symposiums--meetings where elite men enjoyed wine and poetry, performances by dancers and acrobats, and the company of hetaeras (courtesans) while discussing politics.
• Politics was an exclusive club.
• There were no women (except for the "entertainment"),
• Also no middle class,
• Nor slaves.
• Sometimes, certain aristocrats were excluded due to wrong connections or falling out of favor.
• If on the outside, sometimes aristocrats would form alliances with hoplites--well-armed soldiers--and set up alternative forms of government called tyranny.
• Tyrant: someone who rules outside the framework of the polis.
• The modern meaning of a tyrant is an abusive or oppressive ruler.
• The Greek meaning is someone who simply seized power (usually with hoplite help).
• Draco (r. 621 BC).
• All Athenians rich or poor were considered equal under the law.
• Death was a punishment for many crimes.
• Debt slavery--to work as a slave to repay debts--was considered OK.
• The term draconian came to mean unnecessarily harsh.
• Solon's reforms (594 BC).
• He outlawed debt slavery.
• All Athenian citizens were able to speak at the assembly.
• Any citizen could press charges against wrongdoers.
• More reforms were made under the rule of Cleisthenes (c. 500 BC).
• All citizens were allowed to submit laws to for debate at the assembly.
• He created the Council of Five Hundred, whose members were chosen at random.
• Citizens chosen had to be adult, male, property owners born in Athens.
• Women, slaves, and "foreigners" were not accounted as citizens.