September 13

[5thMarea]

Government

1. Limited Democracy
   1. Included the rich and poor people
   2. People could speak their minds
2. Athens Government influenced our government
   1. People would directly vote on stuff like elections
3. Government before Democracy
   1. State ruled by nobility
   2. Rule in hereditary and based on ties, social rank, and wealth
   3. Social status and wealth support rulers’ authority
   4. Practiced in Athens prior to 594 BC
4. Citizenship
   1.  18 years old
   2. Men had to have 2 yrs. of military training
   3. Only adult men were full adults
5. Key Players
   1. Pericles

                                                               i.      Leader of Athens around 450 BC

                                                             ii.      Made sure all citizens could take part in government

                                                            iii.      Any citizens could be in assembly of serve on a jury-arranged for them to be paid

                                                           iv.      This allowed even poor people to take part in government

1. Socrates

                                                               i.      Teacher of Philosophy in the middle 400’s BC

                                                             ii.      Angered some by question laws, customs, and religion

                                                            iii.      Brought to trial in 399 BC for “urging Athens” young people to revolt

                                                           iv.      Sentenced to death

                                                             v.      Most famous philosopher in Ancient Greece

1. Plato

                                                               i.      His book “The Republic”

                                                             ii.      Plato discussed his ideal form of government, in which a society could be constructed to bring out the best of behavior of its citizens

                                                            iii.      Plato believed that different people have different strengths and weaknesses

1. Assemble of the Demons
   1. Male Athenian citizens listen, discuss, and vote on topics that affected Athenian life
   2. Spoke their minds and exercise their votes that had to so with the gov’t of the city
   3. Was the most central and most definitive institution of their democracy
   4. Citizen were paid for attending that way poor would come w/o worry about leaving work
2. The Council of 500
   1. Represented the full time gov’t of Athens
   2. Had 500 citizens, 50 from each of the 10 tribes, who serve
   3. Could issue laws on its own, but main function was to prepare the agenda for meeting of the assembly
   4. Would meet to talk about and vote on “Preliminary decrees
3. The Peoples Court
   1. The Heliaea and the other courts were citizen juries would listen to cases would vote on whether or not someone was guilty, and vote on punishments for people who were guilty
   2. Jurors would get ½ drachma a day ( or 3 obold) for being in jury
   3. Had to be at least 30 yrs. old in jury
4. Supplemented by
   1. The Council of Areopagus
   2. The Archons
   3. The Generals