Download Athens: A City-State

D U CE
eview the Focus Question. This lesson will
focus on the development of democracy in Athens
and its characteristics. Draw
the Graphic Overview on the
board. Ask students to try to
define each type of government
in Athens's history. Notice the
events preceding each stage.
Would Athens have developed
a democracy if the tyrants had
been kind, fair rulers? Read the
lesson to find out how democracy developed.
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Athens: A City-State
he trial promised to be
one of the most important the citizens of Athens would hear all year.
In 406 B.C., six navy generals were
accused of abandoning hundreds
of shipwrecked soldiers and leaving them to drown. Were the generals guilty of causing the deaths of
these men? A jury of 2,000 Athenian citizens would decide the fate
of the generals.
Early in the morning, the trial
began. First the six generals took
the stand. They testified that they
had done all they could to save the
men. The deaths were just an unfortunate turn of fate.
Next, witnesses testified, including a survivor who had floated
to shore in a flour barrel. He
claimed that the spirits of his
drowned comrades urged him
to testify against the
generals.
Professional
mourners, dressed in
black, made their
way through the
crowd. They hoped
to convince the jurors to convict the
generals.
Xenophon
(ZEHNuhfuhn),a
Greek historian, told
of a public crier who
T
How did democracy develop and work in
Athens?
Key Terms
Vocabulary Strategies: T36-T37
democracy—a form of government in which the people share
in the decision making
monarchy—a system of government in which a king rules a
group of people
oligarchy—a system of government in which a few people
rule over a larger group
tyrant—a ruler who seizes
power by force, sharing it with
no one
barter—a system of trade in
which people exchange goods
but do not exchange money
1500
2000
Key Terms
democracy
monarchy
oligarchy
tyrant
barter
w
The ancient Greeks
used these tokens to cast
their votes.
announced how the ju
decide:
L
et every one who
generals guilty
ing the heroes of the la
deposit his vote in one
him who is of the cont
deposit his vote in the
Further, in the event
said generals being fo
let death be the penal
Xenophon, H
The jurors' tokens we
The generals were fou
and sentenced to deat
Chapter 11
Graphic Overview
1. Explain the political evolution
of the city-state.
2. Define democracy.
3. Explain the structure of Athenian society.
4. Describe the economy of
Athens.
—I
Monarchy
Oligarchy
Nobles help Kings
defend their
land. Kings
share power.
Food shortages;
people look for
change.
Tyranny
Athenians
overthrow
tyrant.
De
Ci
p
som
a
D E V E L O
The Evolution of Democracy
Trials such as the one of the
navy generals were an important
part of the government developed
by the citizens of Athens. Between
the 700s and 400s B.C., the Athenians developed a new form of government that put the power to
make decisions into the hands of
the people. This form of government is called a democracy, which
means government by the people.
.
The Origins of Democracy
The idea of democracy was developed over several centuries.
Before the Dark Age, the people
in the Greek city-states were ruled
by kings. A system of government
in which a king rules over a group
of people is called a monarchy. In
ancient Greece, the king of a citystate was also usually the
head of the
most powerful family.
This lesson follows \\
When the king died, he usually
passed on his power to govern to
his eldest son.
During the Dark Age, Greek
kings began to rely on wealthy
landowners, or nobles, to help
them defend their land from invaders. Not surprisingly, the nobles
began to demand some of the
king's powers. By the end of the
Dark Age, a small group of nobles
shared power equally with the king
in many city-states. This system of
government in which a few people
hold power over a larger group is
called an oligarchy. This system
was a step toward democracy, since
a group of men, rather than just
one man, held power.
The leaders of the oligarchies
improved the government of the
city-states, but during the 500s
B.C., some city-states
had problems of a
different kind.
cratic government. Diffe
forms of government em
in Athens over time. Eac
change of government w;
influenced by certain facl
Have students create a cl
of the forms of governrru
Athens. They should incl
information in the follow
categories: roles of citizei
roles of noncitizens, right
citizens, rights of noncitiz
POLITICAL SYSTEM
The earliest governments of Greece were
monarchies. This mask
shows the face of a king
who ruled about 1500 B. c.
Social Participatio
Assign students to grc
and have each group brai
storm the advantages and
advantages of life under a
oligarchy and a democrac
Have each group list its id
on a chart. Then combine
ideas into one large chart
for class discussion.
The Ancient Greeks
Access Strategy
Before the Athenian democracy was created, Athens was ruled by a king, oligarchs,
and finally a tyrant. From left to right, write
monarchy, oligarchy, rule by a tyrant, and
democracy on the board. Briefly go over the
definition of each and then ask students to
speculate how and why the transitions might
have happened from one to the next. (During
the monarchy the king might not have been
able to handle all his responsibilities alone, so
it became customary for two leaders to rule.
A tyrant might have seized power from an
unpopular oligarchy. People might have become fed up with a tyrant and overthrown
him.) Tell students that they will read in the
lesson how Athens became a democracy.
Have students study the
tokens on p. 338. Ask them
deduce the way these token
have been used. (Tokens we
deposited in containers.) Th
cuss the different ways peop
today. (Through a show of h
by saying "aye" or "nay," fe
marking paper ballot, or its
voting machines.)
POLITICAL SYSTEMS
Studv Skills
Tyrant did not always carry
the negative connotations of
harsh and cruel. Ask students
to find in their texts benefits of
the tyrant form of government.
(Debts cancelled, land redistributed, and people other than
the nobles allowed to have a say
in the government.) Next, have
the class discuss why the tyrants
lost power. (They were harsh
and greedy.) Discuss why they
think tyrant came to be used for
any harsh or greedy ruler.
(More than one tyrant must
have ruled harshly for a stereotype to have been formed.)
POLITICAL SYSTEMS
Critical Thinking
Democracy means "rule of
the people." But in Athens not
all people were involved in the
democracy. Only Athenian men
were considered citizens. Laws
in the United States extend the
right to vote to women, but in
what ways does U.S. democracy not involve rule of all the
people? Ask students who is
excluded and why. In their
judgment, is that exclusion fair?
Some grew to be so large that their
farmers could not provide enough
food. Food shortages caused unrest and discontent. During this
period, poorer farmers suffered
greatly. Many lost their land to the
wealthy and were forced to sell
themselves into slavery. The discontent with the leaders of the oligarchies led to the rise of new
leaders called tyrants.
UNDERST
Wt
ien the tyrant
; rlippias was
driven out of Athens in 510
B.C., the people of Athens
established a form of government that was new to
the ancient world. This government—a democracy—
has had a lasting impact on
Western civilization.
A democracy is a form
of government that places
the power in the hands of
the citizens. Some democracies are governed directly
by the citizens, and some
are governed by elected
representatives.
Rule of the People
The word democracy
comes from two Greek
words, demos, meaning
people, and kratos, meaning
"rule." Thus democracy
means "rule of the people."
Unlike an oligarchy, in
which only a few rule, all
citizens take part in the government of a democracy.
The Rule of TV r a m j
Greeks called a leader wl
seized power by force and ru
the city-state single-handedly
tyrant. Many people supports
tyrants because these leaders
promised to reform the laws
to aid the poor. The tyrants o
Athens, for example, accomp
their aims by canceling all de
distributing land, and allowin
"OCRACY
However, democracies can
take different forms.
Forms of Democracy
In ancient Greece, the
citizens met regularly in an
assembly to vote on important issues. This type of
democracy is known as direct democracy because all
citizens take part directly.
For smaller communities,
such as the early Greek
city-states, direct democracy worked because it
was possible to bring together all citizens to make
decisions.
Many democracies
today are representative
democracies. In a representative democracy, the citizens elect representatives to
make decisions for them.
The United States today
has a representative democracy, which is more practical
for large communities and
nations. Can you imagine
trying to get all the people
of the United States together at one time to ma
decisions?
Even in ancient Gre
the people gave some de
sion-making power to re
resentatives of the peop
One feature of Greek
democracy was a counci
500 citizens. They were
sen each year to propose
new laws for the assemb
of all citizens to conside
Chapter 11
Critical Thinking
Discuss the sources of information available on government actions to U.S. citizens. Then ask
students to speculate on possible
ways that Greek citizens received
the information they needed to
make informed choices. (Public
criers, assembly meetings, gossip.)
Bulletin Board
Democracies differ all over the world.
Have the class work together to create a bulletin board featuring democracy in its many
forms. Divide the students into teams. Each
team can be responsible for investigating the
democracy of one country. You might choose
from the following: Japan, Mauritius, the
Netherlands, Costa Rica, Western Samoa,
and Pakistan. The students should collect
photos of expressions of democracy in that
protesting). You may want to have the
include maps in the display or select on
world map showing the location of the
tries. In the center of the board have stu
compile a chart comparing the democra
and showing how they differ.