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Democracy in
Ancient Athens
The Birthplace of Democracy
Exactly how Ancient?
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The ancient city of Athens refers
to a time more than 2500 years ago.
Who were the Ancient Athenians?
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Greece is a mountainous country.
As a result, communities were isolated from one
another by the rugged landscape.
Because of this isolation, each ancient Greek city
developed its own style of government, its own laws,
and built up its own army.
These independent communities are known as citystates.
Who were the Ancient Athenians?
Some of the city-states were controlled by
rich and powerful rulers called tyrants.
 Tyrants are rulers who seize power and
govern in a harsh cruel way.
 The Athenians were different by developing a
system of government that allowed citizens
to participate in making important decisions.
 Other city-states eventually followed suit at
a later time.
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Athenian Social Structure
Citizens
Metics
Slaves
Citizens
Children of parents who were born in
Athens.
 Only male citizens could participate in
voting and governing the city.
 Men became citizens when they finished
military service at age 20.
 Women could not participate at all.
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Metics
Residents of Athens born outside the
city-state.
 Not allowed to own land or become
citizens.
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Slaves
Owned privately or by the city-state.
 Many slaves were people who had been
taken prisoner when their city-state was
attacked by the Athenians.
 Slaves could not become citizens.
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Athenian Democracy
Citizens are allowed to rule themselves.
 Majority rule was fair. (A decision was
supported by more than half of the votes)
 Only male citizens had the right to belong to
the Assembly and vote.
 Women, slaves, and metics were denied
voting rights.
 Slavery was perfectly acceptable in Athenian
Society.
 The Common Good was the most
important thing. Individual and minority
rights were of no importance.
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How were Athenian Citizens
Involved in Decision Making?
Athenian
Democracy
The
Assembly
The Council
of 500
The Court
The Assembly
Meetings took place about 40 times a
year (every 8-10 days)
 Thousands of citizens would attend
 For a vote to grant citizenship on a nonAthenian, at least 6000 members needed
to be present
 Private concerns were brought to the
Assembly as well as public concerns.
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Key Words
Pnyx: a large open area at the top of a hill
where the Assembly would meet
 Direct Democracy: People vote directly
to make decisions rather than having
representatives
 Decree: a decision made by people in
authority
 Pillar: supports or holds something up
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The Assembly
Every member has an equal right to speak
 Voting was most often a show of hands
 Every citizen’s vote counted equally
 Sometimes, stones were used to vote
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The Council of 500
The full time government of Athens
 Known as the boule and met in the
Bouleuterion at the agora.
 Term was 1 year
 Citizens were divided into 10 tribes and
50 members from each tribe over the age
of 30 served on the council
 Each tribe was in charge of the Council
for 1/10 of the year.
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The Council of 500
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Membership was made democratic by:
◦ Council positions were chosen by lottery
◦ A citizen could only serve twice on a council
◦ The chairman only had his position for 24
hours
The council planned the agenda for
Assembly meetings
 Council discussed and voted on decrees
that they would present for approval to
the Assembly.
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The Council of 500
There were always 50 members of the
Council on duty at all times to help the
chairman deal with emergencies.
 They lived in the Tholos near the agora.
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Key Terms
Lottery: names are drawn by chance from
a large number of choices
 Agenda: the list of topics that will be
discussed at a meeting
 Tribe: a political group
 Orator: someone who speaks in public
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Courts
When an Athenian felt they were
wronged, they could bring their issue to
the Court.
 Sometimes magistrates would set a fine as
punishment.
 Sometimes, they would send the case to
trial.
 Any male citizen over 30 could be chosen
for jury
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Key Terms
Magistrate: a government official who
works for the court; served for 1 year
term
 Defendant: the person who is accused of
a crime in a court case
 Plaintiff: the person who brings a
complaint about another person to court
 Klepsydra: water clock used to time the
speeches of the plaintiff and defendent.
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Courts
A jury usually had 501-1500 people.
 Jurors were chosen by lottery the day of
the trial.
 Women could take part in cases before a
magistrate, but a woman who was a
defendant in a jury trial needed to have a
male citizen speak for her.
 Metics could be involved in legal cases,
but they could not serve on juries.
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Courts
The plaintiff and defendant had to be able
to speak well to convince the jury of their
position and often hired speech writers.
 When both sides were heard, the jury
would vote innocent or guilty and then
vote on the punishment if guilty.
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