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Background
Four forms of government were used by the ancient Greeks.
 Monarchy: Rule by a king
 Oligarchy: Rule by a small group
 Tyranny: Rule by a dictator
 Democracy: Rule by the citizens, voting in an assembly
Many city-states were first ruled by monarchy. These monarchies developed into oligarchy when a
council joined the king in ruling.
Democracy
Around 510 BCE the ancient Athenians invented democracy. Only in Athens, and only for a short
time, "rule by many" meant that all citizens had to be willing to take an active part in government.
That was the law.
Each year, 500 names were drawn from all the citizens of Athens. Those 500 citizens had to serve
for one year as the law makers of ancient Athens. All citizens of Athens were required to vote on
any new law that this body of 500 citizens created. One man, one vote, majority ruled. Women,
children, and slaves were not citizens, and thus could not vote. After the Peloponnesian War with
Sparta, which Athens lost, once again Athens was ruled by a king. But for a brief period of about
100 years, Athens was a democracy. It was not a perfect democracy, but it established the roots of
democracy. We owe Athens a lot!
A Direct Democracy: A government in which people vote to make their own rules and laws
A Representative Democracy: A government in which people vote for representatives. The
representatives make rules and laws that govern themselves and the people.
Delian League
A league is a group whose members are united in a common goal. The Delian League was formed
by the Ancient Greek people to prevent future attacks by Persia or other Ancient civilizations.
Each city donated money or ships to the league. All the money was brought to the Greek island of
Delos for safe keeping. That is why the league was called the Delian League. The people of Athens
soon started to take more and more control of how the money was spent. Eventually the money
was brought to Athens. The League was then renamed the Athenian Empire. The Allies or
Athenians forced more and more Greek cities to join so the league would be larger. The new
members had to donate things or money just like the members that joined before. Even the Allies
had to keep paying along with the old. In Athens most of the money was used to build beautiful
buildings and art work.
City-States
After the Greek dark ages, exciting things began to happen in ancient Greece. Villages banded
together to form strong trading centers called city-states.
The ancient Greeks referred to themselves as citizens of their individual city-states. Each city-state
(polis) had its own personality, goals, laws and customs. Ancient Greeks were very loyal to their
city-state. If you asked an ancient Greek where he was from, he would not say, "I live in Greece."
If he was from Sparta, he would say, "I am a Spartan." If he lived in Athens, he would say, "I am
Athenian." The city-states might band together to fight a common foe. But they also went to war
with each other. Greece was not yet one country. Ancient Greece was a collection of Greek citystates.
There was no central government in ancient Greece. Each city-state had its own form of
government. Some city-states, like Corinth, were ruled by kings. Some, like Sparta, were ruled by a
small group of men. Others, like Athens, experimented with new forms of government.
Some of the city-states were Sparta, Athens, Corinth, Megara, Argos, Olympia, Thebes, Delphi,
and Marathon.