The history of Ancient Greece: the bulk of the population of the policy. Greek policy as a socio-political organism

Ancient Greece has always amazed even the imagination of compatriots, not to mention the scientific historians of our time. Their civilization, which originates from simple fishermen and pastoralists, soon became one of the most powerful in the Ancient World. The Greeks were revered as outstanding (and extremely cunning) politicians, fine sailors and warriors.

They reached considerable heights in mechanics: some of their instruments are not inferior to mechanical watches of the 19th century in complexity. Greeks were aware of the energy of steam, created the first prototypes of steam engines in the form of toys.

However, all these and many other achievements would be impossible without a carefully adjusted social structure of the state that could give education to its citizens, protect them from enemies. Since the main "cog" of ancient Greek civilization was a policy, this phenomenon should be discussed separately.

What is an ancient Greek policy?

In fact, a city was called a polis. But here we need to make an important clarification: in those years, cities were often actually separate states. The same Phoenician Empire was, in the modern sense of the word, a confederation formed by individual countries that could withdraw from it at any time. In addition, the bulk of the population of the policy was politically active: any free person considered it his duty to participate in the voting, in making important state decisions.

All this often resulted in bitter disputes and even fights in the streets, which made contemporaries consider the Greeks to be "fussy and loud people". Thus, the policy should be considered a separate, special form of political and social order. The territory of such education was limited not only to the city walls, but also to the lands that most of the population of the policy (that is, people who were in the state service) could protect and cultivate.

How did city-states come about?

The policy is unique in that it arose at a turning point in ancient history, in the transition from the clan and communal system to the first "protostates". In those early years, the stratification of society began: skillful people preferred to become artisans and sell the results of their work, and not give away the benefits they created. There were merchants who know how to sell handicrafts to other tribes, the "caste" of soldiers who strictly protected those same merchants and the general well-being of all members of this "forerunner of the state" severely separated.

In general, almost all city-cities of ancient Greece had a good army, and therefore, if necessary, could stand up for themselves.

Of course, all these people preferred to live not in a naked field. Large cities began to emerge and develop rapidly. Due to the fact that artisans and landowners lived in their walls, merchants and soldiers, scientists and politicians, they were completely self-sufficient. So there were policies.

But what was the social structure of such amazing (by modern standards) "cities"? Ironically, most of the population of the Greek-style polis was represented by free people, citizens. They participated both in the production of everything necessary (pastoralists, agrarians, artisans), and in protecting their land. The military class defended settlements from not too dangerous threats, while during the enemy raids on defense of the walls of the policy, only its inhabitants left.

Economic basis

The guarantee of economic welfare was a special, ancient form of land ownership. Its peculiarity is the duality of structure. On the one hand, the land was unconditionally owned by the state, but at the same time the right to private ownership of it was not in any way disputed. Important! The right to receive his share was owned only (!) Citizen of the policy by birthright, a former free man. Thus, the city-politicians of ancient Greece supported the patriotism of their own inhabitants, and also prevented the interference of foreigners in the internal affairs of the state.

Who else lived in the policies?

As we have already said, all rights could be possessed not just by a free man, but possessing the citizenship of a polis by birth. In addition to "full-fledged" citizens, in the policy lived metacs, pereeks, freedmen. They were completely free, could engage in almost any activity, but did not have the right to vote, could not occupy responsible positions. As a rule, they engaged in petty trade and craft.

Slaves are the third social layer of the policy. They had no rights at all, could not possess property. Every thing that a slave made or acquired was his master's. In particular, this Greek and Roman slavery differed from the similar concept in the same Phoenicians, for whom a non-free person could still have at least some property.

The division of society according to the Athens pattern

In Athens, the model of the Greek polis, based on a clear division of all its inhabitants, was particularly pronounced. As we already know, free people were divided into citizens and metacs.

Citizen could only be the one with both parents who were Athenians. They had full political rights. The citizenship of Athens gave the right to all state benefits and payments. From the age of 18 these people were considered to be liable for military service, and up to the age of 20 all young men underwent compulsory military training. Thanks to this the history of Ancient Greece does not know the moments when the Greeks surrendered to the enemies without a fight.

Metekami were people who lived in Athens for a long time. Most often these are people from other policies. They not only had no right to vote, but could not even acquire real estate in the city. Citizens and metacs could not enter into legitimate marriages, and children from their bondage were considered to be unmarried. Each metac must have had a mediator, a prostate, through which it was supposed to communicate with the state.

Thus, the bulk of the population of the policy is a demos, that is, a free people. This changed only in the last years of the existence of the state, when slaves in many cities became the predominant social stratum.

These people, among other things, were subject to a large number of various taxes, which often went to military needs. In addition, they were required to perform military service. Freedoms were equated with them, they paid the same taxes. The political model of the Greek policy deliberately prevented such people from governing the state, since they could harm the state.

Slaves were private and public. The latter could become supervisors, be part of the police guard, be executioners and scribes. Slaves private lived separately from their owners. In many ways, the only indication of their situation was the obrok, which they paid to their master. A prisoner of war, a child of a slave, a man bought for this purpose abroad could enter slavery. Under Solon, long slavery was abolished, which was used very actively before in Athens. As we have already said, there could not be any possessions among the slaves. But this did not apply to state slaves, who could have something belonging to them.

The testimony of these people in court was valid, but only in the case when the lord was entrusted to them. He could kill his slave at any time, and this was not considered a crime. For the murder of someone else's "property" was supposed to be fined.

What did the policy give to its citizens?

In those difficult times, the policy undertook to give its citizens land, to ensure their right to own slaves. The city, that is, the state, had to take care of maintaining the economic well-being of all its inhabitants. Simply put, these rules resulted in the main direction of foreign policy - expansion and colonization, as citizens constantly needed new land. For the performance of state and military service, a salary was established, which was formed from funds received in the form of taxes and military extraction.

In general, the history of Ancient Greece in this respect was no different from the same period in other states.

The specifics of military service

Every citizen between the ages of 17 and 60 was considered to be military liable (see above). Rich people formed cavalry and joined the ranks of hoplites (heavily armed infantry). All the rest were light infantry and, in some cases, light cavalry. Specificity of social relations within the policy was that the service in the army and the militia was not only honorable, but also desirable. Citizens were really patriots, for they understood perfectly well that nowhere, except in their own polis, they need anyone, that their life, as well as the life of their family and friends, is directly dependent on the welfare and security of their state.

Peculiarities of political arrangement

Despite the huge number of cities, their political arrangement was relatively the same. In any case, there were some commonly used rules. Thus, all the cities of Ancient Greece had the following legislative bodies:

• People's Assembly (Apella, ecclesia).
• A meeting of full-fledged senior citizens, "honorary members" (Gerusia, Areopagus, Senate).
• Separately elected officials (magistrates).

The People's Assembly - the most democratic form of the political life of the society of that time - was in every policy. It is due to the presence of this management body that the right of every adult citizen to participate in public activities was fully realized.

However, we should not assume that peace and harmony reigned inside the policy. Different strata of society waged a constant political struggle, ensuring to themselves and their representatives a preponderance in popular assemblies in order to choose their people to higher places. The cities of Ancient Greece could be either oligarchic (Sparta), or democratic (Athens).

Far from always the predominance was explained only by intrigues: there could be many landowners in the polis-agrarians or artisans and traders. The stronger in a numerical display was this or that social stratum, the more weighty was the opinion of its representatives at meetings. So, Corinth was a reference trade-craft policy, whereas Sparta belonged to agricultural states. Of course, it was traders who determined the development of ancient Greece: Athens, unlike Sparta, was always at the center of the political life of that time, constantly hampering and restraining the development of its warlike rival.

Crisis of social and political arrangement

With the growth of the number of slaves and the increasing focus on slave labor, Greek city-states are becoming one of the forms of a purely slave-owning society. As a result, many private farmers are simply ruined, unable to tolerate competition with free slave labor. The ancient form of property almost completely degrades and collapses, policies enter the era of crisis. Despite the fact that most of the cities experienced their flowering around the 5th century BC, only in 100 years their mass decline began and slipped into banal slavery and dictatorship.

Thus, the main stages of the development of Ancient Greece do not differ in anything unusual: moving from the primitive clan system to the communities, the Greeks eventually came to the model of a developed slave society. In general, this is what caused the weakening of their country.

Legislation of the Dragon

One of the evidences of what happened was the "Dragon Legislation". It obviously got its name for the extreme degree of cruelty of the norms that it included. However, until now, only their names have come down. It is known that a Dragon introduced the following:

• All the inhabitants of the city who could and were able to bear arms received all political and civil rights.
• Nine archons were assigned.
• Henceforth, the Council of Citizens was elected by lot, it could include 401 citizens.
• The patriarchal social order was completely preserved.
• Any citizen for debts from now on could become a slave.
• Everyone has the right to blood feud.
• A collegium of Cosmas and Ephebes was appointed.
• A rigid property qualification was enacted during the admission to the civil service.

These features of the Greek policy were preserved in a practically unchanged state for all subsequent years.

Solon's Laws

Before Solon's reforms, internal contradictions began to show themselves more and more in the society. In the 7th century before Christ, all this leads to an open speech against the nobility. In addition, the tribal aristocracy greatly hampered the representatives of merchants and artisans who had disappeared into the people. They expectedly wanted to "push back" the aristocracy, which severely hampered the economic development of Greece.

So in 594 BC Solon was elected the chief archon. He tried not to allow serious public upheavals, and therefore kept for the nobility some of their privileges. In general, the peculiarities of the Greek policy largely consisted precisely in the fact that the city's leadership nevertheless tried to take into account the interests of all groups and social strata of the population.

Major reforms

First, Solon "refinanced" the debts of people who fell into slavery because of this. All debts were completely canceled. Legislatively, it was forbidden to issue loans secured by the identity of the borrower. The slaves bought out of the state were returned to their homeland, they were given civil rights.

Solon divided all citizens into four categories. Only members of the first three (this is the main part of the population of the policy of ancient Greece) were allowed to rule the state, only first-class citizens could become archons and members of the Areopagus. All people belonging to the fourth category had only the right to vote in the people's congress.

In addition, as in the case of the Dragon, a "Council of four hundred" was elected, but only people from the first three classes could enter it, in equal quantities from each social stratum. A jury trial was created, and all citizens could be juries, regardless of their rank.

About three decades, all the innovations of Solon were preserved in full, and then they were partially reformed.

The reform of Cleisthenes

Cleisthenes supported the nobility in her struggle against the tyrannical rule of the pizistratids. Their king, Hypius, as a result was expelled, tyrannical power was abolished, and the government was entrusted to Cleisthenes himself. With his arrival, the characteristics of the Greek policy underwent significant changes.

At the beginning of the fifth century BC, he is carrying out reforms aimed at the final elimination of the remnants of the clan system. It was Klisfen that abolished the division of citizens into four categories, introducing territorial differentiation. There were ten categories (fil). Each of them was not an ordinary territorial formation, but always consisted of three others: one third of the city territory, one third of the coastal territory, one third of the state's internal lands. Thus, in the country there were clearly 2/3 of the townspeople and 1/3 of the rural farmers. Tritiyami was ruled by demarches. So the characteristic of the Greek policy has changed.

Instead of the "Council of four hundred" was introduced "Council of Five Hundred", which included 50 people from each fila. Archons were abolished, their place was taken by the board of strategists. The censuses for the employment of the highest state positions were fully preserved. It was Cleisthenes who became the ancestor of ostracism, "Court of the shards". In his course, any citizen, whom the society deemed dangerous for the city, could be expelled from the policy for a period of ten years.

We hope that from the article you learned what the main part of the population of the policy was engaged in, what role these ancient cities played in the history of the Ancient World.