GREEKS Section 2 of the Blue Book World History

Greek villages gradually expanded and became independent city-states. The Greek historian Plutarch related how one of these city-states—Sparta—educated its young boys:



As soon as they were seven years old they were to be enrolled in certain companies and classes, where they all lived under the same order and discipline, doing their exercises and taking their play together. Of these, he who showed the most courage was made captain; they had their eyes always upon him, obeyed his orders, and underwent patiently whatsoever punishment he inflicted; so that the whole course of their education was one continued exercise of a ready and perfect obedience.


—The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Plutarch, J. Dryden and A. H. Clouth, trans., 1992
It is no surprise that the Spartan city-state became known for its military prowess.

The Polis: Center of Greek Life

By 750 B.C., the city-state—or what the Greeks called a polis—became the central focus of Greek life. Our word politics is derived from the Greek word polis. In a physical sense, the polis was a town, a city, or even a village, along with its surrounding countryside. The town, city, or village served as the center of the polis where people could meet for political, social, and religious activities.

The main gathering place in the polis was usually a hill. At the top of the hill was a fortified area called an acropolis. The acropolis served as a place of refuge during an attack and sometimes came to be a religious center on which temples and public buildings were built. Below the acropolis was an agora, an open area that served as a place where people could assemble and as a market.

City-states varied greatly in size, from a few square miles to a few hundred square miles. They also varied in population. Athens had a population of more than three hundred thousand by the fifth century B.C., but most city-states were much smaller, consisting of only a few hundred to several thousand people.


The polis was, above all, a community of people who shared a common identity and common goals. As a community, the polis consisted of citizens with political rights (adult males), citizens with no political rights (women and children), and noncitizens (slaves and resident aliens).

Citizens of a polis had rights, but these rights were coupled with responsibilities. The Greek philosopher Aristotle argued that a citizen did not belong just to himself or herself: "We must rather regard every citizen as belonging to the state." However, the loyalty that citizens had to their city-states had a negative side. City-states distrusted one another, and the division of Greece into fiercely patriotic independent units helped to bring about its ruin.

As the polis developed, so too did a new military system. In earlier times, wars in Greece had been fought by aristocratic cavalry soldiers—nobles on horseback. These aristocrats, who were large landowners, also dominated the political life of their city-states. By 700 B.C., however, the military system was based on hoplites, who were heavily armed infantry soldiers, or foot soldiers. Each carried a round shield, a short sword, and a thrusting spear about nine feet (2.7 m) long.

Hoplites went into battle as a unit, marching shoulder to shoulder in a rectangular formation known as a phalanx. This close formation created a wall of shields to protect the hoplites. As long as they kept their order, it was difficult for enemies to harm them.

Greek Colonies


Between 750 and 550 B.C., large numbers of Greeks left their homeland to settle in distant lands. A desire for good farmland and the growth of trade were two important factors in the people's decisions to move. Each colony became a new polis. This new polis was usually independent of the polis that had founded it.

Across the Mediterranean, new Greek colonies were established along the coastlines of southern Italy, southern France, eastern Spain, and northern Africa west of Egypt. At the same time, to the north the Greeks set up colonies in Thrace, where they sought good farmland to grow grains. The Greeks also settled along the shores of the Black Sea, setting up cities on the Hellespont and the Bosporus. The most notable of these cities was Byzantium (buh•ZAN•tee•uhm), the site of what later became Constantinople (now Istanbul). In establishing these colonies, the Greeks spread their culture and political ideas throughout the Mediterranean.


Colonization also led to increased trade and industry. The Greeks on the mainland exported pottery, wine, and olive oil. In return, they received grains and metals from the west and fish, timber, wheat, metals, and slaves from the Black Sea region.

The expansion of trade and industry created a new group of wealthy individuals in many of the Greek city-states. These men wanted political power, but found it difficult to gain because of the power of the ruling aristocrats.

Tyranny in the City-States

The creation of this new group of rich men fostered the rise of tyrants in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. Tyrants were not necessarily oppressive or wicked, as our word tyrant implies. Greek tyrants were rulers who seized power by force from the aristocrats. Support for the tyrants came not only from the new rich who had made their money in trade and industry, but also from poor peasants who were in debt to landholding aristocrats. Both the rich and the peasants were tired of aristocratic domination of their city-states.

The tyrants gained power and kept it by using hired soldiers. Once in power, they built new marketplaces, temples, and walls. These constructions glorified the city but, more importantly, increased the tyrants' popularity. Despite their achievements, however, tyrants had fallen out of favor by the end of the sixth century B.C. Greeks believed in the rule of law, and tyranny was an insult to that ideal.

Although tyranny did not last, it played an important role in Greek history. The rule of the tyrants had ended the rule of the aristocrats in many city-states. The end of tyranny then allowed many new people to participate in government. In some Greek city-states, this led to the development of democracy, which is government by the people or rule of the many. Other city-states remained committed to government by an oligarchy, rule by the few. The differences in how Greek city-states were governed can be understood by examining the two most famous and most powerful Greek city-states, Sparta and Athens.

Sparta

Like other Greek city-states, Sparta was faced with the need for more land. Instead of sending its people out to start new colonies, as some states did, the Spartans conquered the neighboring Laconians. Later, beginning around 730 B.C., the Spartans undertook the conquest of neighboring Messenia despite its larger size and population.
After their conquest, the Messenians and Laconians became serfs and were made to work for the Spartans. These captured people were known as helots, a name derived from a Greek word for "capture." To ensure control over the conquered helots, the Spartans made a conscious decision to create a military state.

A Military State Between 800 and 600 B.C., the lives of Spartans were rigidly organized and tightly controlled (thus, our word spartan, meaning "highly self-disciplined"). Males spent their childhood learning military discipline. Then they enrolled in the army for regular military service at age 20. Although allowed to marry, they continued to live in the military barracks until age 30. All meals were eaten in public dining halls with fellow soldiers. Meals were simple; the famous Spartan black broth consisted of a piece of pork boiled in animal blood, salt, and vinegar. A visitor who ate some of the black broth once remarked that he now understood why Spartans were not afraid to die. At 30, Spartan males were allowed to vote in the assembly (to be discussed later) and live at home, but they stayed in the army until the age of 60.
While their husbands lived in the barracks, Spartan women lived at home. Because of this separation, Spartan women had greater freedom of movement and greater power in the household than was common elsewhere in Greece. Spartan women were expected to exercise and remain fit to bear and raise healthy children.

Many Spartan women upheld the strict Spartan values, expecting their husbands and sons to be brave in war. The story is told of a Spartan woman who, as she was handing her son his shield, told him to come back carrying his shield or being carried on it.

Government of Sparta The Spartan government was an oligarchy headed by two kings, who led the Spartan army on its campaigns. A group of five men, known as the ephors (EH•fuhrs), were elected each year and were responsible for the education of youth and the conduct of all citizens. A council of elders, composed of the two kings and 28 citizens over the age of 60, decided on the issues that would be presented to an assembly made up of male citizens. This assembly did not debate; it only voted on the issues.

To make their new military state secure, the Spartans turned their backs on the outside world. Foreigners, who might have brought in new ideas, were discouraged from visiting. Except for military reasons, Spartans were not allowed to travel abroad, where they might encounter ideas dangerous to the stability of the state. Likewise, Spartan citizens were discouraged from studying philosophy, literature, or the arts—subjects that might encourage new thoughts. The art of war was the Spartan ideal. All other arts were frowned upon.

Athens


By 700 B.C., Athens had become a unified polis on the peninsula of Attica. Early Athens was ruled by a king. By the seventh century B.C., however, Athens had become an oligarchy under the control of its aristocrats. These aristocrats owned the best land and controlled political life. There was an assembly of all the citizens, but it had few powers.

Near the end of the seventh century B.C., Athens faced political turmoil because of serious economic problems. Many Athenian farmers were sold into slavery when they were unable to repay their debts to their aristocratic neighbors. Over and over, there were cries to cancel the debts and give land to the poor. Athens seemed on the verge of civil war.

The ruling Athenian aristocrats reacted to this crisis in 594 B.C. by giving full power to Solon, a reform-minded aristocrat. Solon canceled all land debts and freed people who had fallen into slavery for debts. He refused, however, to take land from the rich and give it to the poor.

Solon's reforms, though popular, did not solve the problems of Athens. Aristocrats were still powerful, and poor peasants could not obtain land. Internal strife finally led to the very thing Solon had hoped to avoid—tyranny.

Pisistratus (pih•SIHS•truh•tuhs), an aristocrat, seized power in 560 B.C. He then aided Athenian trade as a way of pleasing the merchants. He also gave aristocrats' land to the peasants in order to gain the favor of the poor.

The Athenians rebelled against Pisistratus's son, who had succeeded him, and ended the tyranny in 510 B.C. Two years later, with the backing of the Athenian people, Cleisthenes (KLYS•thuh•neez), another reformer, gained the upper hand.

Cleisthenes created a new council of five hundred that supervised foreign affairs, oversaw the treasury, and proposed the laws that would be voted on by the assembly. The Athenian assembly, composed of male citizens, was given final authority to pass laws after free and open debate. Because the assembly of citizens now had the central role in the Athenian political system, the reforms of Cleisthenes created the foundations for Athenian democracy.