2.3 Local government Athens

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2. The Time of Greeks and Romans

The Greeks 3. Athens

What you will learn in 

this lesson

• What political system developed in Athens
• How people voted in Athens
• Who were citizens in Athens
• What ostracism is

ATHENS

Athens is the city state we know most about. When people talk about life in Classical Greece, they often mean the Athenian way of life. Athens was a wealthy city state. It had many slaves. Its citizens had the time to develop a passion for debate, philosophy and scientific ideas. They wrote down their ideas and so we have a great deal of written evidence from Athens. 

Picture: a modern reconstruction of Athens in the 5th century BC

1a. Our idea of Classical Greece is mainly connected to Athens

1. true
2. false

Who were Athenian citizens?

Athenian citizens were sons of Athenian citizens over seventeen years old, or someone the citizens voted to accept as a citizen. 

This was less than a third of the people living in the city state. All citizens had one vote, no matter how wealthy and important they were. In 400 BC, Athens probably had about 40,000 citizens voting on issues from going to war to who to make a citizen.

Women, foreigners and slaves could not be citizens and therefore could not vote.

3. Who were allowed to vote in the Athenian democracy?

1. men
2. women
3. slaves
4. foreigners

watch short animation video

4a. Did Pericles make Athens more democratic or less democratic? Explain your answer

4b. After having watched the video, write down several differences between the Athenian democracy and our own modern democracy.

How did citizens vote?

The Athenian Assembly (= a meeting of all the citizens) met to vote in the agora (market place). As the population grew, they met on a nearby hill, the Pnyx. The Assembly met about 40 times a year. If too few citizens came, slaves went to find more and drag them to the Pnyx with a rope painted red. Red marks on their clothes were supposed to shame them. Issues to be decided were read out, then debated. Anyone could speak. Citizens voted by putting their hands up. If the result was not clear they used metal ballots or pieces of broken pottery that they wrote on. Citizens who lived far from Athens were only likely to make the trip back to vote if the matters debated affected them directly. 

click picture to enlarge 

5. The Athenian Assembly was a meeting of all the people in Athens

1. true
2. false

Ostracism

In Athenian politics, it was important to be good at debating. If you were, you were likely to get people to vote your way. The Athenians did not want any one person to 

have too much political influence. It would stop things being democratic. Their way of stopping this was simple. 

Each year, there was a chance to vote to ostracise someone as ‘a danger to the state'. An ostracised citizen had to leave the city state for ten years. Everyone wrote the name of someone they wanted ostracised on a piece of broken pottery (an ostrakon). If over 6000 votes were cast, the person whose name was on most ostraka had to leave.

Source A

Ostraca used to vote in an ostracism in Athens in about 450 BC. You can still read the name Themistocles.

6b. Explain why being a good debater was (and still is) an advantage for a politician

6c. Ostracised citizens were put to death

1. true
2. false

7b. Athenian democracy meant that all people were equal

1. true
2. false

What you have learned in 

this lesson

• What political system developed in Athens
• How people voted in Athens
• Who were citizens in Athens
• What ostracism is