In 508 bce, who instituted the first athenian democracy by establishing a council of five hundred?

A t l a n t i c Ocean

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MAP 3.2 Greece and Its Colonies in the Archaic Age. Impelled by overpopulation and poverty, Greeks spread out from their homelands during the Archaic Age, establishing colonies in many parts of the Mediterranean. The colonies were independent city-states that traded with the older Greek city-states.

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What aspects of the colonies’ locations facilitated trade between them and city-states in Greece?

Tyranny in the Greek Polis

When the polis emerged as an important institution in Greece in the eighth century, monarchical power waned, and kings virtually disappeared in most Greek states or survived only as ceremonial figures with little or no real power. Instead, politi-cal power passed into the hands of local aristocracies. But increasing divisions between rich and poor and the aspirations of newly rising industrial and commercial groups in Greek poleis opened the door to the rise of tyrants in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E. They were not necessarily oppres-sive or wicked, as our word tyrant connotes. Greek tyrants were rulers who seized power by force and who were not subject to the law. Support for the tyrants came from the new rich, who made their money in trade and industry, as well as from poor peasants, who were in debt to landholding aristo-crats. Both groups were opposed to the domination of politi-cal power by the aristocrats.

Tyrants usually achieved power by a local coup d’e´tat and maintained it by using mercenary soldiers. Once in power, they built new marketplaces, temples, and walls that created jobs, glorified the city, and also enhanced their own popular-ity. Tyrants also favored the interests of merchants and

traders by encouraging the founding of new colonies, devel-oping new coinage, and establishing new systems of weights and measures. In many instances, they added to the prosper-ity of their cities. By their patronage of the arts, they encour-aged cultural development.

THE EXAMPLE OF CORINTH One of the most famous exam-ples of tyranny can be found in Corinth (KOR-inth). During the eighth and early seventh centuries B.C.E., Corinth had become one of the most prosperous states in Greece under the rule of an oligarchy led by members of the Bacchiad fam-ily. Their violent activities, however, made them unpopular and led Cypselus (SIP-suh-luss), a member of the family, to overthrow the oligarchy and assume sole control of Corinth.

Cypselus was so well liked that he could rule without a bodyguard. During his tyranny, Corinth prospered by exporting vast quantities of pottery and founding new colonies to expand its trade empire. Cypselus’s son, Periander, took control of Cor-inth after his father’s death but ruled with such cruelty that shortly after he died in 585 B.C.E., his son, who succeeded him, was killed, and a new oligarchy soon ruled Corinth.

As in Corinth, tyranny elsewhere in Greece was largely extinguished by the end of the sixth century B.C.E. The

The World of the Greek City-States (c. 750–c. 500 B.C.E.) n 61

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children and grandchildren of tyrants, who tended to be cor-rupted by their inherited power and wealth, often became cruel and unjust rulers, making tyranny no longer seem such a desirable institution. Its very nature as a system outside the law seemed contradictory to the ideal of law in a Greek com-munity. Tyranny did not last, but it played a significant role in the evolution of Greek history. The rule of narrow aristo-cratic oligarchies was destroyed. Once the tyrants were elimi-nated, the door was opened to the participation of more people in the affairs of the community. Although this trend culminated in the development of democracy in some com-munities, in other states expanded oligarchies of one kind or another managed to remain in power. Greek states exhibited considerable variety in their governmental structures; this can perhaps best be seen by examining the two most famous and most powerful Greek city-states, Sparta and Athens.

Sparta

The Greeks of Sparta and Athens spoke different dialects and developed different political systems. The Spartans sought sta-bility and conformity and emphasized order. The Athenians allowed for individual differences and stressed freedom. Although the two states shared a common heritage, their dif-ferences grew so large in their own minds that they were ulti-mately willing to engage in a life-and-death struggle to support their separate realities. When they did so, the entire Greek world was the real loser.

Located in the southeastern Peloponnesus, in an area known as Laconia (luh-KOH-nee-uh), the Spartans had orig-inally occupied four small villages that eventually became uni-fied into a single polis (a fifth soon joined the others). This unification made Sparta a strong community in Laconia and enabled the Spartans to conquer the neighboring Laconians. Many Laconians became perioikoi (per-ee-EE-koh-ee), free inhabitants but not citizens who were required to pay taxes and perform military service for Sparta. Other Laconians became known as helots (HEL-uts) (derived from a Greek word for ‘‘capture’’). They were bound to the land and forced to work on farms and as household servants for the Spartans.

When the land in Laconia proved unable to maintain the growing number of Spartan citizens, the Spartans looked for land nearby and, beginning around 730 B.C.E., undertook the conquest of neighboring Messenia despite its larger size and population. Messenia possessed a spacious, fertile plain ideal for growing grain. After its conquest, which was not completed until the sev-enth century B.C.E., the Messenians were made helots and forced to work for the Spartans. But the helots drastically outnumbered the Spartan citizens (some estimates are ten to one) and con-stantly threatened to revolt. To ensure control over them, the Spartans made a conscious decision to create a military state.

Sometime between 800 and 600 B.C.E., the Spartans insti-tuted a series of reforms that are associated with the name of the lawgiver Lycurgus (ly-KUR-guss) (see the box on p. 63). Although historians are not sure that Lycurgus ever existed, there is no doubt about the result of the reforms that were made: Sparta was transformed into a perpetual military camp.

62 n CHAPTER 3 The Civilization of the Greeks

THE NEW SPARTA The lives of Spartans were now rigidly organized. At birth, each child was examined by state officials who decided whether it was fit to live. Those judged unfit were exposed to the elements and left to die. Boys were taken from their mothers at the age of seven and put under control of the state. They lived in barracks, where they were sub-jected to harsh discipline to make them tough and given an education that stressed military training and obedience to authority. At twenty, Spartan males were enrolled in the army for regular military service. Although allowed to marry, they continued to live in the barracks and ate their meals in public dining halls with their fellow soldiers. Meals were simple; the famous Spartan black broth consisted of a piece of pork boiled in blood, salt, and vinegar, causing a visitor who ate in a pub-lic mess to remark that he now understood why Spartans were not afraid to die. At thirty, Spartan males were recog-nized as mature and allowed to vote in the assembly and live at home, but they remained in the army until the age of sixty.

While their husbands remained in military barracks until age thirty, Spartan women lived at home. Because of this sep-aration, Spartan women had greater freedom of movement. Permitted to own and inherit land, Spartan women had more power in the household than was common for women else-where in Greece and could even supervise large estates. They were encouraged to exercise and remain fit to bear and raise healthy children. Like the men, Spartan women engaged in athletic exercises in the nude. At solemn feasts, the young women would march naked in processions, and in the pres-ence of the young men, they would sing songs about those who had showed special gallantry or cowardice on the battle-field. Many Spartan women upheld the strict Spartan values, expecting their husbands and sons to be brave in war. The story is told that as a Spartan mother was burying her son, an old woman came up to her and said, ‘‘You poor woman, what a misfortune.’’ ‘‘No,’’ replied the other, ‘‘because I bore him so that he might die for Sparta and that is what has happened, as I wished.’’7 Another Spartan woman saw her son off to war by telling him to come back carrying his shield or carried on it.

The Spartan social structure was rigidly organized. At the summit were the Spartiates (spar-tee-AH-teez)—full Spartan citizens. Each Spartan citizen owned a piece of land, worked by the helots, to provide economic sustenance. With their material needs provided for them, Spartan citizens could dedi-cate themselves to their duties as a ruling class. Below the Spartiates were the perioikoi. Though free, they did not possess the privileges of citizenship and served as small merchants and artisans. They were subject to military duty, however. At the bottom of the social scale were the helots, perpetually bound to the land. They were assigned to the lands of the Spartan citizens. The helots farmed the land and gave their masters half of the produce. According to one seventh-century Spartan poet, helots worked ‘‘like donkeys exhausted under heavy loads.’’ A secret police force lived among them and was permitted to kill any helot considered dangerous. To le-galize this murder, the state officially declared war on the hel-ots at the beginning of each year.

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image5.jpgThe Lycurgan Reforms

TO MAINTAIN THEIR CONTROL over the helots, the Spartans instituted the reforms that created their military state. In this account of the lawgiver Lycurgus, the Greek historian Plutarch discusses the effect of these reforms on the treatment and education of boys.

Plutarch, Lycurgus

Lycurgus was of another mind; he would not have masters bought out of the market for his young Spartans, . . . nor was it lawful, indeed, for the father himself to breed up the children after his own fancy; but 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 conduct and 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 old men, too, were spectators of their performances, and often raised quarrels and disputes among them, to have a good opportunity of finding out their different characters, and of seeing which would be valiant, which a coward, when they should come to more dangerous encounters. Reading and writing they gave them just enough to serve their turn; their chief care was to make them good subjects, and to teach them to endure pain and conquer in battle. To this end, as they grew in years, their discipline was proportionately increased; their heads were close-clipped, they were accustomed to go barefoot, and for the most part to play naked.

After they were twelve years old, they were no longer allowed to wear any undergarments, they had one coat to

serve them a year; their bodies were hard and dry, with but little acquaintance of baths and unguents; these human indulgences they were allowed only on some few particular days in the year. They lodged together in little bands upon beds made of the rushes which grew by the banks of the river Eurotas, which they were to break off with their hands with a knife; if it were winter, they mingled some thistledown with their rushes, which it was thought had the property of giving warmth. By the time they were come to this age there was not any of the more hopeful boys who had not a lover to bear him company. The old men, too, had an eye upon them, coming often to the grounds to hear and see them contend either in wit or strength with one another, and this as seriously . . . as if they were their fathers, their tutors, or their magistrates; so that there scarcely was any time or place without someone present to put them in mind of their duty, and punish them if they had neglected it.

[Spartan boys were also encouraged to steal their food.] They stole, too, all other meat they could lay their hands on, looking out and watching all opportunities, when people were asleep or more careless than usual. If they were caught, they were not only punished with whipping, but hunger, too, being reduced to their ordinary allowance, which was but very slender, and so contrived on purpose, that they might set about to help themselves, and be forced to exercise their energy and address. This was the principal design of their hard fare.

What does this passage from Plutarch’s account of Lycurgus tell you about the nature of the Spartan state? Why would the entire program have been distasteful to the Athenians?

Source: From The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans by Plutarch, translated by John Dryden and edited by Arthur H. Clough.

THE SPARTAN STATE The so-called Lycurgan reforms also reorganized the Spartan government, creating an oligarchy. Two kings from different families were primarily responsible for military affairs and served as the leaders of the Spartan army on its campaigns. Five men, known as the ephors (EFF-urz), were elected each year and were responsible for the education of youth and the conduct of all citizens. A council of elders, com-posed of the two kings and twenty-eight citizens over the age of sixty, decided what issues would be presented to an assembly of all male citizens. This assembly did not debate but only voted on the proposals put before it by the council of elders. The as-sembly also elected the council of elders and the ephors.