Greek+Government

Greek Government

By Cameron



Democracy did not start until 510 B.C, in Athens. Their Democracy was not fair to everyone, it did not allow women, slaves, foreigners, children, and citizens from other city-states to vote.

The people of Greece were divided into three groups, upper class, middle class, and lower class. The upper class consisted of Male citizens that have lived and was raised in Greece since birth, and their wives. Middle class consisted of Male citizens whom were not born or raised in Greece, and their wives. Lower Class consisted of slaves, criminals, and farmers.

Greek laws were made by the men of Athens. The men would meet up in the Assembly and take a vote on laws that might benefit Athens. Often times the votes turned into arguments. These arguments were very loud and noisy, and could be heard through out Athens.

Each time a new government was in power it was a different era. The late bronze era seemed to all have been Monarchies, which then were ruled by kings. The dark age or era was not ruled by one specific government, but was still ruled by kings who were mostly brothers, cousins, or other related family. The Archaic period, or era was ruled by the Oligarchies, which were rich men who told people what to do. About a hundred years later the Tyrants took over. The Tyrants had one king whom were supported by poor people. They did technically rule but without any legal right to say they could.

Eventually Greece grew apart in a governmental sense. Each city-state had their own government, which was or was similar to the four governments that had each once ruled over Greece.

Government for Greece was split up into four groups:

monarchies a state or nation in which the supreme power is actually or nominally lodged in a monarch.

​ oligarchies a form of government in which power is distributed to a vested few, or people that are in a dominant class.​

tyrannies a government that had a absolute ruler, which was unjustly or oppressive.

Democracies ​ a form of government in which there is no king or ruler, anybody could make a law based on majority rule. ​

Each city state fell into one of these governments, each with different ideas, and laws. If a city-state did not fall into one of these governments after the Archaic period, it was very similar to one of these governments.



Greek laws

In early Greece, there were no official laws or punishments. Murders were settled by the victims family who would go and murder the murderer. Only during the seventh century of ancient Greece were laws starting to be made. the first law was over murders. The was established exile as the punishment of a homicide.

A tort law is when someone does harm to you, or your property. Most punishment for tort laws were payments to the victim. If something was stolen, the thief had to return whet ever he/she stole and something else depending on the amount that he/she stole. If a person was raped the raper had to pay a fine of 100 drachmas. If a person of bitten by a dog, the dog would have to wear a three cubit long wooden collar. There were also laws that settled housing placement.

Family laws had to deal with behavior of men and women. These laws had to deal with marriage, adoption, inheritances, and supporting role of parents. There were no particular punishments for these laws, but were enforced by the head of the household.

Public laws were how public services were provided, and how public functions should be conducted. These laws consisted of, if a person lived to far away from a public well he would have to dig a well of his own. These laws also stopped the export of agricultural except olive oil. Another law was that a man could only own so much land, and laws that allowed venders to sale products at any interest rate they wanted.

Procedural laws, were basic guidelines for judges on how to use other laws. These laws were step-by-step instructions on how the law should be enforced. These laws included how many witnesses must be called on during a homicide hearing.

Law Givers​ Laws were not made by rulers of kings, but by people whos jobs were to write and approve laws. Most of these people were in the middle class.Officials in the government were to make sure law givers were fair and did not take sides to make a certain law approved that was not fair. ​ Law givers were not part of the government, but were a side part of the government called, political outsiders.

Societies​ Pre legal society, was a society that had no spisific way of dealig with disputes or other crimes. A small community main remain like this for a extended period of time, until the community gains for people than it needs a more formal source of laws and order.

Proto legal society, was a society where rules and laws existed for handleing disputes, but there was no distintion between rules and laws.

Legal scociety, is a society in which we have today, this type of society deemed certain acts so unwanted as to warrented punishments. in this society rules were not givin up, but not every rule has a punishment.

Famous leaders/rulers In the period in which Greek had kings, and rulers, there were only two who had taken the throne in Greece's time of power.

Pericles​ Pericles was born to a wealthy family. His father was the military leader, and his mother died at his birth. Pericles started his career the political branch of careers. He also took over his fathers place as military leader after his fathers death. As well as run the military, he also improved Athens, and helped the people whom lived within Athens. He passed a law that allowed the poor to attend theatrical performances for free. Another law he passed was that a jury service must be paid for. In making these laws he gained support from the masses. The money he gained through those laws he used to help and rebuild the Greek military. He also used the money to rebuild some of Athens, like the Acropolis, and the Parthenon. He remained leader of Greece until his death in 429 B.C.

Alexander the Great​ Alexander was born in 356B.C. His father was a famous military leader, while his mother was the princess of Epirus. At 20 years of age Alexander started gathering forces in Greek cities, this is what made his start to get reconized as a great leader. His army mainly consisted of Macedonian troops, and few Greek troops. He than attacked, invaded and captured Persia. A short time after Alexander got an idea to rule to world with him in control. He began heading north with his army, invading and conquering any civilizations that got in his way. Darius was king of the Persia empire at this time, he fled his empire. He was hunted down and killed by his own men. With Darius out of the way Alexander was able to conquer the whole empire. He now had control over the whole Persian empire. From there Alexander and his men headed south to what is now Afghanistan. Convinced by his men that he would go any further they would reach the end of the earth. he went back the way be originally came. After his death the Greek empire began to fall, a little at a time. He had Conquered Greece, Egypt, Asia, and the Asia minor. He was famous for having won many battles, for having ruled over new pieces of the Greek empire, and creating new cities and towns in the Greek empire.





@http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/government/index.htm

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