Warring City States

• Polis: fundamental political unit, made up of a city and the surrounding countryside.
• Politics, policy, political, metropolitan, etc.
• Monarchy, ruled by a single person (a king in Greece)
• aristocracy: rule by a small group of nobles, very rich landowning families.
• oligarchy: wealthy groups, dissatisfied with aristocratic rule, who seized power (often with military help)
• Tyrant: powerful individual who seized control by appealing to the common people for support.
• During the seventh and sixth centuries of B.C., aristocrats ran the show in most of Greece
• Most cities controlled between 50 and 500 square miles of territory, with 10,000 residents
• the agora was on-top of a fortified hilltop or acropolis, were citizen discussed politics.
• aristocracy- government ruled by small families
• clashes often occurred between rulers and people
• nobles usually stole control of the government by appealing to the common people- a Tyrant
• they were seen to work in interest of the common people.
• Athens reforms to a democracy
• Draco took power at 621 B.C.
• he made a legal note that rich and poor are equal under the law
• He had harsh punishments, most being death
• He enforced debt slavery, which was where people would work as slaves to pay debt
• Solon came to power at 594 B.C.
• He outlawed debt slavery
• He organized Athenians into 4 social classes
• only the top three classes could be a political leader, but all could take part in voting