warring city states

• Vocab
• polis: fundamental political unit, made up of a city and the surrounding countryside
• monarchy: rule by a single person (a king in Greece)
• aristocracy: rule by a small group of noble, 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
• Draco (621 BCE)
• all Athenians are equal under the law
• death is the punishment for many crimes
• debt slavery is allowed
• Solon (594 BCE)
• outlaws debt slavery
• all Athenian citizens can speak at the assembly
• any citizen can press charges against wrongdoers
• arranged social classes
• Cleisthenes (500 BCE)
• allowed all citizens to submit laws for debate at the assembly
• created the Council of Five Hundred
• 10 groups formed by wealth
• only free adult male property owners born in Athens were considered citizens
• women slaves were considered “foreigners”