1. Chapter 5, Section 2

2. The growth of city states in Greece lead to the
development of several political systems, including
democracy.
All are governments
Monarchy = rule by king
Aristocracy = rule by nobility
Oligarchy = rule by group
Democracy = rule by citizens
Monarchy, aristocracy, and oligarchy are all ruled by
leaders

3. By 750 B.C. the Greek city-state, or polis, is the
formal government.
A polis is a city and its surrounding villages; 50-500
square miles.
Population of a city-state is often less than 10,000.
Citizens gather in the marketplace and acropolis—a
fortified hilltop

4. Greek Political Structures
 City-states have different forms of government.
Monarchy-rule by a king
Aristocracy-rule by nobility
Oligarchy-rule by a small group of powerful merchants and
artisans

5. Tyrants Seize Power
 Rulers and common people clash in many city-states.
 Tyrants—nobles and wealthy citizens win support of
common people.
 They seize control and rule in the interests of ordinary
people.

6. Building Democracy
 About 621 B.C., democracy—rule by the people—
develops in Athens.
 Nobleman, Draco, develops legal code based on
equality of citizens.
 Ruler Solon abolishes debt slavery; Cleisthenes has
citizens make laws.
 Only native-born, property-owning males are citizens.

7. Athenian Education
 Schooling only for sons of wealthy families.
 Girls learn from mothers and other female members of
the household.

8. A Unique City State
 Sparta, isolated from much of Greece, builds a military
state.
Sparta Dominates Messenians
 Around 725 B.C., Sparta conquers Messenia
 Messenians become helots—peasants forced to farm
the land.
 Harsh rule leads to Messenian revolt; Spartans build a
stronger state.

9. Sparta’s Government and Society
 Sparta government has four branches: citizens elect
officials
 Three social classes:
Citizens
Free non-citizens
Helots--slaves

10. Spartan Daily Life
 Spartan values: duty, strength, individuality, discipline over
freedom.
 Sparta has the most powerful army in Greece
 Males move into barracks at age 7, train until 30, serve until
60.
 Girls receive some military training and live hard lives
 Girls are also taught to value service to Sparta above all else

11.  “Certainly, by the time he
finished the agoge [training
period], a young man would
know for sure whether he
had been marked out for
future greatness. To the
most promising graduates
was granted the honor of
one final bloody challenge.”
(p. 85)

12. “Enrolled into a crack squad known as the Crypteia,
they would be sent into the mountains, armed only
with a single dagger each, and ordered to live off the
land. This period of exile from their city, however, was
much more than a mere endurance test.”

13. “Traveling alone, each member of the Crypteia would
inevitably cross the Taygetos range and slip into
Messenia. There, advancing soundlessly by night, as
every graduate of the agoge had been trained to do,
they would be expected to prove themselves as
killers.”

14. “How else, after all, save by the careful pruning of the
most able Messenians, could the Spartans hope to
breed natural serfs? Just as they condemned to the
Apothetae the dregs of their own city, so they aimed
to extinguish any spark of talent or rebellion in their
slaves. Only the truly servile could be permitted to
reproduce.” (p. 86)

15. “Visions of female flesh, oiled and tanned, glistened
in the imaginings of many a Sparta-watcher. The
Spartans themselves, sensitive to the mockery that
labeled their daughters ‘thigh-flashers,’ would retort
sternly, ‘that there was nothing shameful about
female nudity, nothing immoral in the slightest.’ In
fact, ‘since it encouraged a sense of sobriety, and a
passion for physical fitness,’ precisely the opposite.”

16. “Yet paramount though the requirements of
Sparta’s eugenic program undoubtedly were, an
aura of the erotic still clung to the training grounds
nevertheless. The fertility of a future mother was
best gauged, a Spartan might argue, by the glowing
of her skin and the perfection of her [body].
Physical beauty—the long blond hair and elegant
ankles for which Spartan girls were celebrated—
provided the readiest measure by which moral
beauty too could be judged. An ugly daughter,
inevitably, would cause her parents alarm and
distress.” (p. 83)

17. “For it was the goal of instructors not merely to crush
a boy’s individuality, but to push him to startling
extremes of endurance, discipline and impassivity, so
that he might prove himself, supremely, as a being
reforged of iron.” (p. 84)

18. “When, at the age of seven, a young Spartan left his
home to live communally with other boys, it was
more than his sense of family that was being fractured
and reset: the very notion that he possessed a private
identity was, from that moment on, to be placed
under continuous assault.” (p. 84)

19. A New Kind of Army Emerges
 Cheaper iron replaces bronze, making arms and armor
cheaper
 Leads to new kind of army; includes soldiers from all
classes
 Phalanx—feared by all, formation of soldiers with
spears, shields

23. Battle of Marathon
 Persian Wars—between Greece and the Persian Empire
—begin in Ionia
 Persian Army attacks Athens, is defeated at Marathon
in 490 B.C.
Pheidippides Brings News
 Runner Pheidippides races to Athens to announce
Greek victory.

24. Thermopylae and Salamis
 In 480 B.C. Persians launch a new invasion of Greece.
 Greeks are divided; many stay neutral or side with Persians.
 Greek forces hold Thermopylae for three days before
retreating.
 Athenians defeat Persians at sea, near island of Salamis.
 Victories at Salamis and Plataea force Persian retreat.
 Many city-states form Delian League and continue to fight
Persians.

25. Consequences of the Persian Wars
 New self-confidence in Greece due to victory.
 Athens emerges as leader of Delian League.
 Athens controls the league by using force against
opponents.
 League members essentially become provinces of
Athenian empire.
 Stage is set for a dazzling burst of creativity in Athens.