Aristocrats

  • Aristocrats attended symposiums meetings where the elite men would enjoy wine and poetry, performances by dancers and acrobats, and the company of heaters while discussing politics
  • Politics- an exclusive club
  • No women (except the "entertainment")
  • No middle class
  • no slaves
  • aristocrats who weren't wealthy anymore could fall out
  • Sometimes aristocrats would form alliances with hoplites (well-armed soldiers) and set up an alternative form of government called a tyranny 
  • Tyrant- someone who rules outside the framework of the polis (old definition)
  • Draco (621 BCE)- 
all Athenians (rich or poor) are equal under the law, death is the punishment for many crimes, debt slavery was OK (work as a slave to repay debts)
  • Solon's reform (594 BCE)- 
outlaws debt slavery, all Athenian citizens can speak at the assembly, any citizen can press charges against wrongdoers
  • Draconian- overly harsh punishment 
  • More reforms (around 500 BCE)- allowed all citizens to submit laws for debate at the assembly, created the Council of Five Hundred (members chosen at random, to counsel the assembly), leading to democracy, only free adult male property owners born in Athens were considered citizens, women, slaves, and foreigners were excluded 

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