In this article we will talk about Ancient Greece. More precisely, we will try to find the answer to the question of what is a policy in ancient Greece.
In the 8-9th century BC. e. Greece was not the only state, as, for example, the states of the Ancient East during its heyday. Greece was a country of policies.
A polis in Ancient Greece is a community of citizens, a collective of farmers and pastoralists who live together and protect their land together. Gradually, the policy changed, acquiring the features of the state. Its center was a walled city, with a trading square - an agora, a temple dedicated to the patron god of the city, various houses, and the like. Farmers and shepherds settled around the city. All land suitable for agriculture, lands and natural resources were considered the property of the community.
Only a citizen could be the owner of the land. All citizens were members of the militia who took up arms during a military threat. The people's assembly held all the power in the polis. Only citizens of the village had the right to participate in it. There were different types of policies in Ancient Greece.
There were dozens of them. Powerful werepolicies of ancient Greece. Their names are Athens and Sparta. The richest city was Corinth. Each policy had its own government, army and treasury, minted a coin.
Athens
Answering the question of what a policy is in ancient Greece, the first state that should be considered is Athens. The territory of the Athenian polis occupied the entire peninsula of Attica in Central Greece. Athens itself is located in the center of a fertile plain, 5 km from the sea.
The dominant position in the new state belonged to the tribal nobility. The main government positions were occupied by aristocrats. The supreme power belonged to the Areopagus, consisting of representatives of the tribal nobility, and to the archons - state officials (head, high priest, commander in chief, six public judges).
Slowly, the poorer members of the community opened up and were forced to borrow from the rich. A debt stone was placed on the land of the borrowers. When they could not repay the debt with interest, they lost the land. Those who leased the land kept only a sixth of the crop for themselves, and gave the rest to the owner of the land. The peasants became emaciated, became debtors, and subsequently turned into slaves.
Solon's reforms
In the 8-7th century BC. e. a certain part of the demos - merchants, owners of workshops and ships, we althy peasants - got rich. Now they sought to participate in the management of the policy, but were deprived of this right. It was they who launched and led the struggle between the demos and the aristocracy.
In the midst of the turmoil, citizens turned to the Athenian politician Solon, who headed the policy in ancient Greece - this led to the implementation of several reforms. First of all, he canceled the debts of the Athenians and forbade debt slavery. The land plots were returned to the debtors. The Athenians, who were enslaved for debt, were given freedom. From now on, no Athenian could be a slave!
Solon introduced the division of citizens into four categories - the richest, we althiest, middle class and the poor - depending on the size of their property and income. Citizens of different categories had different rights and performed different duties to the state.
The transformations that Solon made in Athenian society reoriented Athens towards the development of democracy.
Tyranny in Athens
20 years have passed since the beginning of the reign of Solon, and unrest began again in Athens. A relative of Solon, the commander Pisistratus, in 560 BC. e. seized power and began to rule in Athens alone, by force ensuring peace and harmony in the Athenian policy. So tyranny was established in Athens.
The lands of the aristocrats who left the country were distributed among the peasants. For them, the tyrant introduced a tax (a tenth of the harvest), which enriched the state treasury.
Pisistratus tried to promote the development of agriculture, crafts, trade, and shipbuilding. He began a great construction in Athens: temples, paths and water pipes were erected by his order. Famous artists and poets were invited to the city, the Iliad and the Odyssey were written, whichwere passed down orally. Actually, it was during the reign of Peisistratus that Athens became the cultural center of Greece. Since then, their maritime power has also begun.
Completion of the formation of the Athens polis
Tyranny fell shortly after the death of Peisistratus (because his heirs ruled cruelly), and the legislator Cleisthenes was elected the first archon. He divided the entire territory of the Athenian state into 10 districts, each of which consisted of three equal parts - seaside, rural and urban. Citizenship was no longer determined by belonging to a clan, but to a particular district. Previously, the territory of the country was divided according to ancestry. With this reform, Cleisthenes "mixed" the citizens and gave them all the same rights. Thus, the influence of the clan nobility in the government of the state has been reduced.
All citizens were now considered equal regardless of property status: even the poor could hold any public office. So, in Athens, power was again in the hands of the people.
Sparta
Sparta was called a powerful city in Ancient Greece. In the 9th century BC. e. on the Peloponnese peninsula, in the region of Laconica, the Dorians founded several settlements. Subsequently, they finally conquered the local Achaean tribes. In the 7th c. BC e. Dorians annexed the neighboring region of Messenia to their possessions. During the two Messenian wars, a state formation was formed, called Lacedaemon (Sparta).
In the article we are looking for an answer to the question of what is a policy inAncient Greece. Therefore, we will dwell in more detail on the state structure of Sparta.
Government
Citizens of Sparta lived according to the laws, which, according to legend, were introduced by the sage Lycurgus. The Council of Elders played a leading role in the administration of the Spartan state. The decision of the council of elders was approved by the people's assembly. Only citizen-warriors who reached the age of 30 took part in it.
Lycurgus made sure that all citizens of Sparta had equal rights, so that among them there were neither poor nor rich. Spartan families received the same land plots in possession, they could not be sold or donated, since all land in Sparta was considered the property of the state.
The Spartans were forbidden to engage in craft, trade, their only occupation was military affairs. Weapons and handicrafts were made for them by the perieki. The land allotment of the Spartan was cultivated by helots. The Spartans could not sell, fire or kill a helot - the helot families, like the land, belonged to the state.
Life of the Spartans
Analyzing the question of what a policy is in Ancient Greece, we will briefly talk about the life of the Spartans.
The Spartans were brave, hardy warriors. They wore coarse clothes, lived in the same one-story wooden houses. They had certain forms of hairstyles, beards and mustaches. During construction, it was allowed to use an ax, and only in the manufacture of doors - a saw. From the age of 16 until old age, the Spartan was obliged to serve in the army. At the age of 30, he was considered an adult and had the rightget a piece of land and get married.
This is how the city-states of Ancient Greece lived and developed.
