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All citizens of Athens were required to vote on any new law that this body of 500 citizens created. One man, one vote, majority ruled. Women, children, and slaves were not citizens, and thus could not vote.

Archaic period

Late Bronze Age

at each period there were plenty of city-states using a different system, and there were many which never did become democracies or tyrannies at all.

Athenian democracy did not really give power to everyone

Athens at this time had an empire

many Greek city-states kept oligarchic government, or tyrannies, or monarchies, through this whole time

The Greeks had a lot of different kinds of governments, because there were many different city-states in ancient Greece, and they each had their own government.

between about 2000 and 1200 BC, all Greek city-states seem to have been monarchies,

Most of the people in Athens couldn't vote - no women, no slaves, no foreigners (even Greeks from other city-states), no children.

Sparta is the most famous of these, though actually Sparta had two kings, usually brothers or cousins, at the same time.

Greek scupture inspired the Romans and (indirectly) the great sculptors of the Renaissance.

Elements of Greek architecture have been copied again and again from Roman times onward--and we still see many elements of Greek architecture in at least some of our public buildings today.

Sports (Olympic games)

The Greeks also are important for the contribution to sports.

There are lots of other echoes of the Greeks in our sports tradition of today.

  History (first and some of greatest historians, including HERODOTUS, Thucydides, and Xenophon)

The Greeks give us the first true historical works, and it was a Greek (Herodotus) that first used the term "history" for what we call history today.  Not only did the Greeks give us our first historical works, they also give us some of  our greatest.

The buildings on the Athenian acropolis are a great example.

First of all, it is impressive because it moves beyond the mere chronicling of events (something that had been done before) and attempts to explain why certain events happen and what those events means: what lesssons we can learn from history.

  Herodotus might be considered, not just the father of history, but the father of cultural anthropology as well.

And particular this is so when one looks at Herodotus' central theme: freedom.  A central theme of Herodotus' book is the value of living in a free society (even though it means sacrifice) rather than living under despotism no matter how well-organized and prosperous a society run by a despot might seem.  Herodotus book is one of the sources of the Western love of freedom.

Political science Not only do the Greeks give us our first history, they give us also our first political science, the systematic study of human government.  When one studies political science today, one constantly uses Greek terms (monarchy, democracy, etc.). Why?  Because the Greeks were the first to study the various forms of human government and to identify the strengths and weakness of each.

Aristotle's Politics and Plato's Republic are still much read in political science/political philosophy classes today, another good example of the lasting influence of the Greeks.

Poetry In poetery too, the Greek had a lasting influence.  When we analyze poetry today, we use Greek words (iamb, dactyl, trochee, etc.).  Why?  Because the Greeks were the first to systematically analyze poetry.  Here too Aristotle is a key figure.  His "Poetics" is as influential in literary criticism as his "Politics" is in political science.

Among the greatest and most influential of epic poems are the two great poems of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. 

The Greeks also excelled at lyric poetry. 

Mathematics Math is another area in which the Greeks made important contributions.  You are all familiar with the Pythagorean theorum, and the Greek reverence for numbers that starts with Pythagoras is certainly an important contribution of the Greeks.

Now what's important here is *not* the practical application of geometry.  What's important is the systematic, rigorous thinking process one must go through in coming up with these proofs.  The study of Euclid taught generation after generation to think clearly and logically: and it is a pity that the current geometry texts have drifted away from this.

  Science The Greeks also made important contributions to the sciences.  Biology, Physics, Physiology, Zoology: all Greek names, because the Greeks were the first to systematically explore these areas.  Thales, the first Greek philosopher, also is the father of physics, asking a fundamental question: what are all things made of?  The Greeks explored the question, coming up with promising answers.  Ultimately, Greeks like Aristotle believed that the world was made up of four fundamental elements. Other Greeks added the idea that these elements in their turn were made up of invisible, indivisable particles they called atoms.  Now we have a lot more elements than the Greek four, and we believe the atom can be divided into evern more fundamental particles, but note that the Greeks are certainly on the right track.

Perhaps most impressive of all was Archimedes

  But its not just in literature the Greeks excelled. They produced some of the world's greatest art, the first true science, and some of the greatest athletes the world has ever seen.  In fact, of all the ancient peoples, it was the Greeks who contributed the most to subsequent civilization in virtually every field of human endeavor.  What's all the more amazing is that the Greek were able to do all these things despite the fact that they were constantly at war--or maybe because they were constantly at war. Generalization: Greeks made more important contributions to sub. civilization than any other ancient people.  Achievements:

But Greece has done so much more for humanity than just great marinated vegetables. Greece set foundations for modern civilization that include art, government, science, and even sports.

Athens instituted a system where every citizen - then defined as free males - had the right to both vote and speak in the legislative assembly where new laws were made.

The Greek word demos could mean either

Was it all the people

Or only some of the people

There's a theory that the word demokratia was coined by democracy's enemies, members of the rich and aristocratic elite who did not like being outvoted by the common herd, their social and economic inferiors.

By the time of Aristotle (fourth century BC) there were hundreds of Greek democracies. Greece in those times was not a single political entity but rather a collection of some 1,500 separate poleis or 'cities' scattered round the Mediterranean and Black Sea shores 'like frogs around a pond', as Plato once charmingly put it.

cities that were not democracies

power was in the hands of the few richest citizens

monarchies, called 'tyrannies' in cases where the sole ruler had usurped power by force rather than inheritanc

most stable,

most long-lived,

most radical, was Athens.

origin of the Athenian democracy of the fifth and fourth centuries can be traced back to Solon,

flourished

600 BC.

was a poet and a wise statesman

but not - contrary to later myth - a democrat.

Solon's constitutional reform package that laid the basis on which democracy could be pioneered

Cleisthenes was the son of an Athenian, but the grandson and namesake of a foreign Greek tyrant

also the brother-in-law of the Athenian tyrant, Peisistratus,

eized power three times

before finally establishing a stable and apparently benevolent dictatorship.

nder this political system that Athens successfully resisted the Persian onslaughts of 490 and 480/79

victory in turn encouraged the poorest Athenians to demand a greater say in the running of their city

Ephialtes and Pericles presided over a radicalisation of power that shifted the balance decisively to the poorest sections of society

he democratic Athens that won and lost an empire,

built the Parthenon,

eschylus, Sophocles,

Euripides and Aristophanes

laid the foundations of western rational and critical thought

was not, of course, without internal critics

when Athens had been weakened by the catastrophic Peloponnesian War (431-404) these critics got their chance

n 411 and again in 404 Athenian oligarchs led counter-revolutions that replaced democracy with extreme oligarchy

oligarchs were supported by Athens's old enemy, Sparta

mpossible to maintain themselves in power

democracy was restored

'blips' such as the trial of Socrates - the restored Athenian democracy flourished stably and effectively for another 80 years

There were no proper population censuses in ancient Athens,

total population of fifth-century Athens, including its home territory of Attica, at around 250,000 - men, women and children, free and unfree, enfranchised and disenfranchised. Of those

250,000 some 30,000 on average were fully paid-up citizens -

adult males of Athenian birth and full status

second key difference is the level of participation.

representative

we choose politicians to rule for us

Athenian

was direct

and in-your-face.

most officials and all jurymen were selected by lot.

This was thought to be the democratic way, since election favoured the rich, famous and powerful over the ordinary citizen.

mid fifth century, office holders, jurymen, members of the city's main administrative Council of 500, and even Assembly attenders were paid a small sum from public funds to compensate them for time spent on political service away from field or workshop.

eligibility

adult male citizens need apply for the privileges and duties of democratic government, and a birth criterion of double descent - from an Athenian mother as well as father -

Athenian democracy did not happen only in the Assembly and Council. The courts were also essentially political spaces, located symbolically right at the centre of the city.

defined the democratic citizen as the man 'who has a share in (legal) judgment and office'.

Athenian drama,

was a fundamentally political activity as well,

One distinctively Athenian democratic practice that aroused the special ire of the system's critics was the practice of ostracism -

potsherd

rom the Greek word for

decide which leading politician should be exiled for ten years

on a piece of broken pottery.

voters scratched or painted the name of their preferred candidate

6,000 citizens had to 'vote' for an ostracism to be valid,

biggest

political

risked being fried

For almost 100 years ostracism fulfilled its function of aborting serious civil unrest or even civil war

Power to the people, all the people, especially the poor majority, remained the guiding principle of Athenian democracy.