In the confines of Athenian democracy, only the free citizens (that is, bare in mind, men who owned property) would have power to vote, largely those comprising the 10 tribes of Attica. Here’s a flow chart of how Democracy was thought to work in Athens, at least, according to Aristotle.

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In any discussion of Greek exchanges of power, warfare and strategy, you will inevitably encounter the infamous citizen-soldiers of the city-states, known as the Hoplites. These warriors pose a unique way of fighting for us, one which is reliant on few numbers but nevertheless effective. Through...

The changing nature of power in the Greek world has been a major point of discussion, especially in recent years. Athenian statehood & political identity has obvious ramifications for how we understand the very nature of a Democratic system, even today. The 19th century belief in progress,...

As we move to the western world, we are really looking at the Greek’s process of colonisation and especially, the interaction between Italic locals & Greek settlers. A previous generation of scholarship had a tendency to subsume such indigenous influences into Greek presence, and...

As we move into late Archaic & Classical Periods, we’re still a while off from the Democracy Athens was famous for. Instead we first encounter the reigns of the Athenian Tyrants. Now, we need to reframe things a bit. While the modern English word “tyrant” generally denotes...

Following the rise of the Archaic Polis of Athens, I would be amiss if I didn’t at least spend one post on the Classical city to talk about it a bit. The easiest way to begin talking about Athens in the Classical Period is through its architecture. It is usually even defined by it!...

To begin understanding the nature of the early Polis, we can go back to the end of the Early Iron Age, focusing on the period between 900-700 BCE. This period is naturally hard to discern, with most of the remains being underneath the Archaic layers & stratigraphy, since many Polises were...

Following Homer’s works composed during the early Archaic Age, we begin moving towards social complexity. For the next few posts I will be focusing on the Archaic Age more generally, with a view to tracing the development of the Greek Polis. Roughly speaking we are dealing with the...