Notes on Lo3 pg 51-59

Citizens and Communities: The Greek City-State 

•  With the recovery of Greek civilization, the tribal communities of the Dark Ages began to develop city-states. 
• Greek city-states were small places, generally consisting of no more than a town and a few square miles of surrounding countryside. 
• Athens and Sparta, each about the same size as a couple of U.S. counties, were giants among city-states 
• The population of both town and country ordinarily numbered only a few thousand, though Athens may have reached as many as 250,000. 
• acropolis- The high fortified citadel and religious center of ancient Greek town. 
• Both fortresses and temples were vitally important to the Greek city-states 
• They were fiercely competitive communities that continually fought one another, and their single most important civic activity was the worship of the god or goddess on whom each community was thought to depend
• Athens, for example, was the city of the goddess Athena, and from the Athenian acropolis her temple, the Parthenon, or "Place of the Maiden", overlooked the whole city. 
• Greeks city-states were very much the same as those of the Sumerians or Phoenicians, but they differed in on important respect: for the Greeks, the city-state was a community in which all were entitled to participate to a greater or lesser extent.
• City States and Citizens
• Greek city-states first developed at exactly the time that the Assyrians were reaching for power westward from Mesopotamia, but Greece was protected by many miles of land and sea. 
• city-states were free to struggle among themselves because they didn't have an empire.
• they occupied a land that was far less wealthy than Mesopotamia or Phoenicia. 
• In their conflicts with one another, they could not afford professional soldiers or large cavalry forces. 
• hoplite- a heavy armed and armored citizen- soldier of ancient Greece. 
• phalanx- a unit of several hundred hoplities, who closed ranks by joining shields when approaching the enemy
• Monarchy, Oligarchy, Tyranny, Democracy
• the communities that would become city-states were ruled by kings 
• monarchy- a state in which supreme power is held by a single, usually hereditary ruler (a monarch)
• oligarchy- a state in which supreme power is held by a small group 
• triremes- massive fighting vessels with three banks of oars, used to ram or board enemy ships. 
• democracy- in ancient Greece, a form of government in which all adult male citizens were entitled to take part in decision making. 
• Greek city-states were in many ways narrow and exclusive 
• Woman generally participates in the community's affair on a much more limited basis than men, immigrants were almost never awarded citizenship, and slavery was widespread.
• When a city-state sent some of its citizens overseas to found a colony, the new settlement became a separate, independent state. 
• And when one conquered another, it extended its control but not its citizenship. 
• Sparta: The Military Ideal 
• Spartans were the descendants of Greeks who had conquered part of the southern mainland, the territory of Laconia. 
• helots- noncitizens forced to work for landholders in the ancient city-state of Sparta. 
• citizens devoted themselves to the one calling that was permitted to them by law: that of full time hoplite warriors. Boys were taken from their families by the state at the age of seven; they were taught manly behavior and reading and writing and were started on a lifelong routine of physical toughening and military training. 
• They were permitted to marry after age 20--- in fact, bachelors were punished--- and the state encouraged the mating of the best human specimens. 
• Athens: Freedom and Power 
• To the Athenians, the Spartan life was not worth living. 
• Athens was also a warlike community--- and exactly because it had wider horizons than Sparta, it was more ambitious for conquest 
• Athenian democracy not only brought freedom for ordinary citizens and stimulation for artists, writers, and thinkers; for a time, it also brought exceptional power for the city-state in its struggles with its rivals. 
• aristocrats- members of prominent and long-established Athenian families. 
• Athenian aristocrats prided themselves on being exceptionally excellent human beings 
• some aristocratic girls also got an education, particularly if they were sent off to live for a few years before marriage with one of the groups of young woman who served in the temples of various gods. 
• The Persians Wars 
• In the sixth century B.C, the Persians conquered a realm that stretched from the border of India to the Nile and the Aegean. 
• The leader of democratic Athens after the victory over Persia was another aristocrat 
• The Workings of Democracy: The Assembly 
• ultimate government power rested in the Assembly of adult male citizens. 
• debates in the Assembly were often spirited. 
• The Workings of Democracy: Officials and Courts 
• As an additional check on aristocratic power, the Council of Five Hundred and the roughly one thousand public officials that it supervised---tax collectors, building inspectors, and the like--- were nearly all chosen annually by lot
• ostracism- banishment for ten years by majority vote of the Athenian Assembly 
• The Athenians also trusted to chance---or the will of the gods, as expressed by the drawing of lots----in the administration of justice. 
• Woman in Athens 
• Most of what us known of the life of Athenian citizen women comes from surviving law court speeches composed by famous orators