Search
Search Results
Definition
Draco's Law Code
Draco was an aristocrat who in 7th century BCE Athens was handed the task of composing a new body of laws. We have no particular clues concerning his life and general biography and the only certainty is that, as an aristocrat and an educated...
Definition
Athenian Democracy
Athenian democracy refers to the system of democratic government used in Athens, Greece from the 5th to 4th century BCE. Under this system, all male citizens - the dēmos - had equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity...
Definition
Athens
Athens, Greece, with its famous Acropolis, has come to symbolize the whole of the country in the popular imagination, and not without cause. It not only has its iconic ruins and the famous port of Piraeus but, thanks to ancient writers, its...
Definition
Agora
The term agora (pronounced ah-go-RAH) is Greek for 'open place of assembly' and, early in the history of Greece, designated the area in a city where free-born citizens could gather to hear civic announcements, muster for military campaigns...
Definition
Solon
Solon (c. 640 – c. 560 BCE) was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet, who is credited with restructuring the social and political organisation of Athens and thereby laying the foundations for Athenian democracy. Such were his accomplishments...
Definition
The Thirty Tyrants
The Thirty Tyrants (οἱ τριάκοντα τύραννοι) is a term first used by Polycrates in a speech praising Thrasybulus (Arist. Rhet. 1401a) to describe the brief 8-month oligarchy which governed Athens after the Peloponnesian War – roughly late-summer...
Definition
Phocion
Phocion (c. 402 – 318 BCE) was an Athenian statesman and military commander who, according to tradition, was made a general a staggering 45 times. A student of Plato and known as 'the Good', his political position was somewhat ambiguous...
Definition
Themistocles
Themistocles (c. 524 - c. 460 BCE) was an Athenian statesman and general (strategos) whose emphasis on naval power and military skills were instrumental during the Persian wars, victory in which ensured that Greece survived its greatest ever...
Definition
Cimon
Cimon (c. 510 – 450 BCE) was an Athenian statesman and, as strategos, frequent commander of the Athenian fleet when the city was at the height of its power. He won military glory by defeating Spartan rival Pausanias and then the Persians...
Definition
Ancient Greek Government
Ancient Greece witnessed a wide variety of government systems as people searched for the answers to such fundamental questions as who should rule and how? Should sovereignty lie in the rule of law, the constitution, officials, or the citizens...