Overview
SPARTA
• Sparta focused on foreign conquest in response to population pressure
– By 600 BC it had taken over the nearby city of Messenia
• Doubling agricultural acreage and establishing firm economic base for future military power
• War against Messenia also forced fundamental social, political, and economic reforms within Sparta
– First written constitution in Greek history
• Reflected unique form of society in which every aspect of a citizen’s life was governed by military necessity
SPARTAN TRAINING I
• Every new-born infant examined by committee
– Abandoned to die if it showed any type of deformity
• Enrolled in special troops at age six
– Remained members until age 18
– Girls still lived at home but boys lived away from parents
– Put through increasingly brutal series of classes designed to make them used to suffering and hardship
• Also designed to break down family relationships
• Education focused on music, dancing, and athletics
SPARTAN TRAINING II
• Began formal military training at age 18
– Took 2 years to complete
• Applied for admission into a military club after successful completion of training
– Membership was official indication that a boy had become a man
– Application for admission had to be voted on by other members of club
• Vote had to be unanimous
• Not allowed to marry or have a family for 10 years
– Still had to have meals with club until he was 60
• Military clubs formed basic unit of military service
HELOTS
• Spartan men given plots of land to support themselves after they joined a military club
– Did not work land themselves
– Work done by helots
• Slaves owned by the Spartan state
• Manufacturing also done by helots
• Spartan men lived off the work of others so that they could devote their entire life to being a soldier
SPARTAN GOVERNMENT
• Two kings
– Led army and Sparta in general
– Hereditary
• Gerousia
– 28 man council
– All members over 60 years old
– Drew up proposals for legislation
• Assembly of the Spartans
– All full male citizens
– Voted on legislative proposals
– Presided over by five elected officials called ephors
ATHENS
• Lost control of Attica and only gradually re-established itself as a unified state in the region
– By 650 BC
• Entered a period of internal turmoil around 630 BC
– Two attempts by individuals to seize control of the city
– Great deal of unrest by lower classes and hoplites against domination by oligarchy of wealthy landowning families
– Oligarchy also divided between conservative and progressive factions
SOLON
• Solon given job to reform city’s laws and restore internal peace and order
– 594 BC
– Determined to stamp out lawlessness at all levels of society and convinced all Athenians that disobedience to the law would destroy the city
• Best way to do this was to make the law more fair and eliminate unjust laws
– Only way to get people to respect the law was to make it worthy of their respect
REFORMS OF SOLON
• Abolished practice of enslaving a person for unpaid debts and freed all persons enslaved for that reason
• Abolished all feudal obligations that commoners owed the aristocracy
• Widened political participation
– Broke monopoly aristocrats had over Council of Athens, elected positions, and Assembly of Athens
– Allowed all citizens regardless of wealth to serve in Assembly
– Opened up position of archon and seat in Council of Athens to wealthy hoplites
– Created new 400 member body which acted as Supreme Court
– Established right of any citizen to bring a case to court
REFORMS BACKFIRE A LITTLE
• Solon’s reforms went long way towards opening up Athenian society and government to a greater number of people
– But they did not immediately end the turmoil that plagued the city
• Athens did prosper
– Rapid population growth, geographic expansion, various public works projects
– But Solon’s reforms increased infighting by multiplying the number of factions struggling for control
• Even resulted in several dictatorships (tyrannies)
CLEISTHENES
• Two factions struggled for control after death of the tyrant Hippias (508 BC)
– One led by Isagoras and the other by Cleisthenes
• Cleisthenes won
– Because he had cultivated the support of the demos
• Majority of Athenian population who were still excluded from politics because they owned little or no property
• He had won their support because he promised to give them a legal political voice
REFORMS OF CLEISTHENES
• Cleisthenes kept promise to demos
– Population of city and region divided into ten tribes
– Each included people from all walks of life
– Each elected representatives to the Council, elected generals and public officials, and jurors to Supreme Court
• Cleisthenes permanently broke power of old aristocracy and established the foundation for democracy
ARCHAIC GREECE
• At beginning of period, most of the Aegean world was divided into independent principalities
– Had simple social structures with nobility on top and everyone else below
• By 500 BC, principalities had been transformed into city-states
– Aristocracy reduced to just one faction of many
– Aristocratic value system subsided in favor of a new one based on service to the community and the law
POETS
• Old value system of aristocracy was based on fighting and an obsession with honor
– But the new city-state, with its commercial and business activities, had little use for a bunch of jealous, warring aristocrats with their inflated sense of honor
• Required instead justice, established by law according to rational and regular procedures
• Poets at the forefront of attack on old aristocratic value system
– Example: Archilocus
– Argued old aristocratic and heroic values were out of touch with the times
• Silly and counter to the need for law and order
CHANGES IN RELIGION
• Gods reflected aristocratic values in Homer’s poems
– Obsessed with fighting, killing, and performing heroic feats
• During the Archaic Ages, gods became more interested in justice
– Urged men to be content with their lot in life
• To go against this was now considered hubris
– Insolence against the gods
• Religion modified during Archaic Age to reinforce new value system and discourage the old
SUMMARY
• Mutually-reinforcing cycle
– Growth of business and trade undermined the aristocratic monopoly over society
• Decline of aristocracy was accompanied by a parallel decline in their value system
– Helped by propaganda attacks by poets and a gradual shift in religious emphasis
– Decline of aristocratic value system was paralleled by the rise of a new value system based on law, order, and stability
• Encouraged further business growth and prosperity
– Sped up the decline of the aristocracy
– Provided good environment for development of literature and beginning of philosophic and scientific speculation
GREEK POLITICAL CULTURE
• In Greek polis, the state was society
– Two were completely integrated with each other
• Power was not delegated to a permanent group of legislators, judges and bureaucrats
– Citizens were expected to play an immediate and direct role in legislation, the judiciary, and executive policy-making
• Fundamental principle of most Greek city-sates that officials should be constantly changed
– Giving almost everyone a chance to actively running the polis
PRIVATE SPHERE/PUBLIC SPHERE
• No “diffusion of loyalty”
– No chance for citizen to develop non-state loyalties
• Only one state religion
• No non-state cultural associations
– All art was public and all cultural events were state affairs
– Nothing in the Greek polis existed to distract the citizen from his loyalty to the state
• Private sphere linked tightly to the state, focusing everyone’s absolute loyalty to that institution
POLITICAL ASSUMPTIONS
• Taken for granted that all important questions regarding policy-making, legislation, and judiciary was the concern of all citizens
– Professionals did not dominate government
• Power was not dissipated among a multitude of specialized departments and institutions
– Rested fully in the hands of the people
CITIZENSHIP
• All city-states restricted who could become a citizen
– General tendency in Archaic Age was towards less restrictivness
• Citizens only made up part of total population
– Rest were foreigners, slaves, and freedmen
SLAVES AND FREEDMEN
• Slaves played crucial role in economy of all city-states of ancient Greece
– And in Sparta, they were the economy
• Freedmen worked as craftsmen, small farmers, small retail merchants
– But they worked for themselves, not for others
• To work for someone else on a regular basis was the mark of a slave
– Essential characteristic of a freedman was economic independence
• No matter how low-level or demeaning the work they did
FREEDMEN
• Freedmen often very poor
– Did not view themselves as oppressed working class
– Complaints directed against the rich
• Especially wealthy creditors
• Slogans concerned lack of political participation or the elimination of debts
– Saw themselves as independent businessmen
• Wanted recognition of their status and relief from the costs of doing business
– Never formed any kind of alliance with slaves to overcome their mutual exploitation
• Because they say themselves as inherently better than slaves
GREEK FAMILY
• Archaic Greeks viewed family as immortal
– Founded in mythical days and would continue forever
– Male head of family therefore had to work to ensure this immortality
• By expanding its economic base, performing religious rituals, worshipping ancestors, having children
– Family without children was not considered a family at all
• Family heads under great pressure to keep their families going by having children
MARRIAGE
• Marriage was a carefully considered, regulated step
– Were prearranged
– Couple became engaged as children after long negotiations between parents
– It was understood that love would develop after marriage
• Not before
GREEK WOMEN
• Greeks attached immense importance to chastity of citizen women
– It was of utmost importance that legitimacy of offspring not be questions on the grounds of a pre-marital or extra-marital affair
– Took every precaution to segregate women from men
• Even set aside a part of the house for exclusive use of women
– Adultery considered a serious crime that threatened foundation of the state
• Not just a private matter
CITIZEN AND SLAVE WOMEN
• Women had no political role
– Charged with running households and nothing else
• Slave women and freedman women had more freedom
– Since they were not considered important enough to worry about
• No one cared if their families remained intact or not
• Could pretty well do what they wanted in their private lives
FINAL POINT
• Neither male nor female citizens enjoyed a high degree of freedom (in the modern sense of the term)
– Greek ideas of freedom implied conformity to community standards of behavior
• Community needs defined the roles of men and women and restricted the freedom of both
• Male family heads had little choice over who and when he should marry, whether to have children, etc.
– Law and custom demanded that he subordinate his own needs and desires to those of his family and the community at large
– In exchange, men and women enjoyed a strong and stimulating community life
» A trade off between liberty and security, with security receiving the most emphasis