Government in Ancient Greece

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Government in Ancient Greece
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. Peoples ideas about what
made a good government changed over time.
Aristotle divided Greek governments into
monarchy, oligarchy, tyranny and
democracy, and
most historians still use these same divisions.
For the most
part, Greece began by
having monarchies, then oligarchies, then
tyrannies
and then democracies.
In 510 BC, the city-state of Athens created the
first democratic government, and soon other Greek
city-states imitated them. Athenian democracy did
not really give power to everyone. Most of the
people in Athens couldn't vote - no women, no
slaves, no foreigners (even Greeks from other
city-states), no children. And also, Athens at
this time had an empire, ruling over many other
Greek city-states, and none of those people
living in the other city-states could vote
either. Democracy in ancient Athens was quite
different from the way people practice it today.
Democracies today are "representative
democracies", by which the general population
elects a small group of people every few years
who then make all of the governmental decisions
on behalf of the people. In Athens, however,
every governmental decision had to be made by a
big assembly of all eligible citizens who wanted
to take part in some cases, this had to be at
least 6,000 citizens. This is called a direct
democracy. The Athenian Assembly would meet in
a large open-air area on the side of a hill in

Athens called the Pnyx. Only male citizens over
the age of 20 were allowed to take
part. Any member
of the assembly could speak and make proposals
(at least in
theory), and everyone at the
assembly voted on each issue by a show of hands.

The assembly met at least 40 times a
year. Sometimes, the authorities had trouble

rounding up enough people to attend the
assembly, so they would send out slaves
carrying
ropes dipped in red dye. Anybody that they hit
would be fined, so people would run from the
slaves to the Pnyx where they were safe and join
the assembly. The Athenians also had a council
with 500 members (called the "boule or Council
of 500), which prepared the agenda for the
assembly and carried out its decisions. The
members were chosen by lottery from the
population of citizen men over the age of 30 and
served for one year. A man was allowed to be a
member only twice in his whole lifetime. The
council would meet on most days of the year in a
council chamber in the agora. Juries in ancient
Athens were also chosen by lottery drawn from any
male citizens over the age of 30 who volunteered
at the start of each year. Juries were made up of
different numbers depending on the type of case.
Often there were 501 jurors deciding a case.
Speeches were
timed and after each side had put
forward his case, all of the jurors voted by
secret
ballot. The case was decided by a simple
majority. Witnesses were allowed, but
unlike
today, there was no cross-examination.
Imprisonment was not used as a
punishment
following a conviction in ancient Athens
usually a person found guilty

either had to pay a fine or was put to
death. Another important part of Athenian
democracy in the fifth century was something
called ostracism. Once every year, the assembly
would be asked if they wanted to hold an
ostracism. If they said yes, then, two months
later, the assembly met in the agora. Everybody
who wanted to could scratch the name of somebody
they wanted to get rid of on to a piece of
pottery and deposit it. If there was a total of
6,000 pieces of pottery, then whoever had the
most votes had to leave the country for ten years
within ten days. Athenian democracy was
limited, but it gave some people the opportunity
to make decisions
about how they were governed. Participation
in government by common people was a new
idea that later became
a model for other governments. Democracy of this
kind has two
preconditions. The community must be small enough
for citizens to be capable of attending
debates and voting on
issues. And its economy must give these citizens
enough leisure to
engage in politics in the ancient world this
means that there must be slaves to do most of
the work.
Both circumstances prevail in Athens.
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Art and Architecture in Ancient Greece
Greek life was dominated by religion and so it is
not surprising that the temples of ancient Greece
were the biggest and most beautiful. They also
had a political purpose as they were often built
to celebrate civic power and pride, or offer
thanksgiving to the patron deity of a city for
success in war. The Greeks developed three
architectural systems, called orders, each with
their own distinctive proportions and detailing.
The Greek orders are Doric, Ionic, and
Corinthian. During the Hellenistic
Period, there are some new architectural types.
Less time is spent on temples. The new form
is the theater, and many theaters are built all
over the Greek world. Also, there is new
interest in town planning at this time streets
begin to be laid out in straight lines, instead
of just developing naturally. With the
conquests of Alexander the Great, architecture
becomes an important way to spread Greek
culture and show who is in charge in the
conquered countries. Greek art is mainly in
four forms architecture, sculpture, painting and
painted pottery. Sculpture includes small
figurines and life-size statues, but also relief
sculptures which
were on the sides of buildings, and also
tombstones. Early works consisted mostly of
sculptures made from
marble and limestone The sculptors of Ancient
Greece could
portray the human body perfectly in stone and
bronze. Whether carving self-standing
statues for
temples or intricate bas-relief work to adorn
architecture, the work of the
Classical era was so good, it was
unsurpassed. Early sculpture was stiff, although
sculptors such as
Polyclitus perfected the proportions of the male
standing figure. A revolution came
around 400BC when the new technique of metal
casting allowed sculptors to make
hollow bronze figures, with more finely honed
musculature, hair and clothing than
solid metal had allowed. Surprisingly,
sculpture was brightly painted to make it stand
out at a distance.. During this period
Greeks making the large statues and
representations of Gods and humans
that they are so famous for. Sculptors honored
the Gods by expressing the beauty of
the human body. Young and athletic men were the
main subjects of classical sculpture.
Emotion and movement were shown in the
works of art in the Hellenistic style. Pain and
fear were shown on the faces of the figures and
battle scenes where even carved into relief
sculptures for temples Pottery provides a
hugely important link to the past, thanks to its
durability
and widespread use.
Decorative amphora, mixing bowls, drinking cups

and oil flasks are the best
surviving medium for Greek painting, while the

distribution of pottery remains provides a record
of ancient trade routes.

Early decorative designs were dropped in favor of
scenes from myth or

daily life, with fine details giving added depth
and realism.

The Doric style is rather sturdy and
its top (the capital), is plain.
This style was used in
main land Greece and the
colonies in southern Italy and
Sicily.
The Ionic style is thinner and more elegant. Its
capital is decorated with a scroll-like design (a
volute). This style was found in eastern Greece
and the islands.
The Corinthian style is seldom used in the Greek
world, but often seen on Roman temples. Its
capital is very elaborate and decorated with
acanthus leaves.
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Theater in Ancient Greece
Greek history began around 700 B.C. with
festivals honoring their many gods. Dionysus was
honored with an unusual festival led by drunken
men dressed up in rough goat skins who would
sing and play in choruses. Tribes competed
against one another in performances, and the
best show would have the honor of winning the
contest. At the early Greek festivals, the
actors, directors, and dramatists were all the
same
person. Later, only three actors could be used in
each play. Actors were always
men, even if they
were playing female roles. The actors were so far
away from the
audience that without the aid of
exaggerated costumes and masks, they would be
difficult
to see. Actors wore thick boots to add to their
height and gloves to
exaggerate their hands so that
their movements would be discernable to the
audience.
The mask is the best-known symbol of Greek
theater. A distinctive mask
was made for each
character in a play. The masks were made of linen
or cork, so
none have survived. We know what they looked
like from statues and paintings of ancient Greek
actors. Tragic masks carried mournful or pained
expressions, while comic masks were smiling or
leering. An actor's entire head was covered by
his mask, which included hair. It has been
theorized that the shape of the mask amplified
the actor's voice, making his words easier for
the audience to hear. After some time,
non-speaking roles were allowed to perform
on-stage. Because of the limited number of
actors allowed on-stage, the chorus evolved into
a very active part of Greek theatre. Though the
number of people in the chorus is not clear, the
chorus was given as many as one-half the total
lines of the play. Music was often played during
the chorus' delivery of its lines. Tragedy told
a story that was intended to teach religious
lessons Most Greek tragedies are
based on mythology or history.
They were designed to show the right and wrong
paths in life.
Tragedies were not simply plays with bad endings.
Tragedies depicted the life voyages
of people who steered
themselves or who were steered by fate on
collision courses with

society, life's rules, or simply fate. Comedy was
supposed to be a mockery of people and
situations, a criticism against
immorality, greed and corruption. Its goal was to
pass the message of
the return to tradition and to the values of the
ancestors. The well-known Greek playwrights of
the fifth century are Aeschylus, Sophocles,
Aristophanes and Euripides. Aeschylus introduced
the second actor and created the first play as we
know it today. He also attempted to involve the
chorus directly in the action of the play
Sophocles won twenty-four contests for his
plays, never placing lower than second place. His
contributions to theatre history are many He
introduced the third actor to the stage, fixed
the number of chorus members to fifteen, and was
the first to use scene painting. Aristophanes,
who competed in the major Athenian festivals,
wrote 40 plays, 11 of which survived. All
comedies of note during this time are by
Aristophanes. Greek theaters were large,
open-air structures constructed on the
slopes of
hills. They consisted of three principal
elements the
orchestra, the skene, and the
audience. The centerpiece of the
theatre was the
orchestra, Behind the orchestra was a large

rectangular building called the skene. It was
used as a "backstage"
area where actors could
change their costumes and masks.
The audience sat on
tiers of benches built up on the side of a hill.
Greek theatres,
then, could only be
built on hills that were correctly shaped. A
typical theatre was enormous, able to seat around
15,000 viewers.
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Science and Mathematics in Ancient Greece
The Greeks were very interested in science as a
way of organizing the world and
making order out of their
world, and having power over some very powerful
things
like oceans and weather. Science in Ancient
Greece was based on logical thinking
and mathematics.
From about 600BC, many Greek men spent time
observing the
planets and the sun and trying to
figure out how astronomy worked. Thales of
Miletus is regarded by many as the father of
science he was the first Greek philosopher to
seek to explain the physical world in terms of
natural rather than supernatural causes. By the
400's BC, Pythagoras was interested in finding
the patterns and rules in mathematics and music,
and invented the idea of a mathematical proof.
His famous theorem for calculating the length of
the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is well
known. Although Greek women usually were not
allowed to study science, Pythagoras did have
some women among his students. Socrates, a
little bit later, developed logical methods for
deciding whether something
was true or not. Although the
Greeks were the first Europeans to consider
questions
of astronomy, mathematics, physics and biology,
it was not until the time of Aristotle
that they
recognized science as a discipline distinct from
philosophy. Nevertheless,
they made some astounding discoveries and their
names live on. In the
300's BC, Aristotle and other philosophers at
the Lyceum and the Academy in Athens
worked on observing plants and
animals, and organizing the different kinds of
plants and
animals into types. Hippocrates (460-390BC), a
physician and medical writer, is the father of
modern medicine. He established a renowned
school of medicine on the island of Cos, where
students learned to diagnose illness through
observation rather than theory. It was from this
school that the first version of the Hippocratic
oath derived. Archimedes (287-211BC) is most
famous for running through the streets shouting
Eureka! when he
discovered the principle of specific gravity
while sitting in his bath. But we can
also credit him with the
invention of the Archimedean screw a device
still used to draw
water upwards and many important theories of
geometry. The threads on the inside
collect water and as the tube
rotates, the water is brought up and put into a
storage tank. This massive device was run by
human power. The person running the screw,
usually a slave, held onto a rail at the top and
used his own muscle power to propel the water
upward. Because the Greeks had only very clumsy
ways of writing down numbers , they didn't like
algebra. They found it very hard to write down
equations or number problems. Instead, Greek
mathematicians were more focused on geometry, and
used geometric methods to solve problems that you
might use algebra for. Greek mathematicians
were also very interested in proving that certain
mathematical ideas were true. So they spent a
lot of time using geometry to prove that things
were always true, even though people like the
Egyptians and Babylonians already knew that they
were true most of the time anyway. The Greeks in
general were very interested in rationality, in
things making sense and hanging together. They
wanted to tie up the loose ends. They liked
music, because music followed strict rules to
produce beauty. So did architecture, and so did
mathematics.
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Sports in Ancient Greece
The Greeks took games of all kinds very
seriously, but especially physical athletic
competition. The Greeks believed that their gods
particularly loved to see strong, fit, graceful
human bodies, especially boys' and men's bodies.
So one way to get on the good side of the gods
was to exercise, to eat right, to oil your skin,
to create a beautiful body that the gods would
love. Because of the Greek tendency to turn
everything into a competition, this also meant
that there were a lot of athletic competitions in
Greece. Every set of sporting games was dedicated
to a god. The most famous of these is the Olympic
Games, but there were other games held in other
places as well, like the Isthmian Games at
Corinth. Young men (from richer families who
didn't have to work) in most Greek cities spent a
lot
of their time training for these competitions,
and the best of them were chosen to compete
against the best young men
from other cities. Then they would all meet, at
the Olympic
Games or the Isthmian Games or elsewhere,
and compete for prizes and for the favor of
the gods.
Of course these games also served as good
training for the army, because all
these men would be
soldiers as well. The events were the same kind
as in the Olympics
today running, jumping, throwing a
javelin, and throwing a discus. Only men could
compete. The greatest
victory for an athlete was to win the Olympic
crown, the prize for each event winner in the
Olympics. The crown was a wreath of wild olive
cut from the tree sacred to Zeus. The glory of
the victorious athlete reflected glory to all the
inhabitants of his home town. To show that he
had become famous, the winner had a statue
erected of himself, poets wrote verses telling
of his feats and coins were made with his
likeness on them. Although we associate the
Olympic Games with sport, the Games of Ancient
Greece were
primarily a religious festival in honor of Zeus.
Legend has it that the Games were founded
by Heracles, who
planted an olive tree from which the winners
garlands were made. So seriously did the
Greeks take the Games that a truce was declared
and strictly observed during each Olympics. Even
during the Peloponnesian Wars, enemies mingled
and competed side by side during the event. The
truce was only broken once, by Sparta, who were
banned from the 420BC Games as a punishment.
Races The longest race at the ancient Olympics was the foot race called dolichos which was about 5 kilometers. The shortest was the fast sprint, the stade, which was about 192 meters long Pentathlon The pentathlon comprised five events running, jumping, discus throwing, javelin tossing and wrestling. It was the most all-round sport. Wrestling and Boxing Wrestling was a tough sport. There were no rounds - instead athletes kept on fighting until one man had thrown his opponent three times. the pankration, a type of wrestling match in which nearly anything was allowed, including kicking and trying to strangle your opponent. The only fouls were biting and trying to gouge out someone's eyes. Boxers hands were protected by long leather thongs. These were the ancestors of boxing gloves The Long Jump Ancient athletes used lead or stone jumping weights which they would swing to increase the length of their jump. These heavy weights were called halteres.
An unfamiliar sport in ancient Olympia was the race in armor, called the hoplitodromia. It reminded all Greeks that one of the main purposes of the athletics was to prepare them to fight for war. In the hoplitodromia men had to run against each other dressed in full heavy armor. Javelin A leather strap was fixed to the shaft of the javelin. The athlete inserted his fingers into the loop which allowed him to increase the distance it traveled. Wrestling and Boxing Wrestling was a tough sport. There were no rounds - instead athletes kept on fighting until one man had thrown his opponent three times. the pankration, a type of wrestling match in which nearly anything was allowed, including kicking and trying to strangle your opponent. The only fouls were biting and trying to gouge out someone's eyes. Boxers hands were protected by long leather thongs. These were the ancestors of boxing gloves Chariot Races The chariot races were perhaps the most exciting of all the events at Olympia. There were races for four-horse chariots and two-horse chariots.