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Ancient Greece LEGS Government and Law. By Chandler Murphy. Original Governments.
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Ancient Greece LEGS Government and Law By Chandler Murphy
Original Governments Greece had many different city-states, or self-governing tiny nations. Among them, Athens, Athens started out as a oligarchy. An oligarchy is a form of government where the most powerful and rich people govern. Other city-states had a monarchy, where there is only one leader.
Democracy in Athens Athens had an oligarchy only until the ordinary citizens wanted a voice in their government in 508 BC, and finally the government was forced to make a new government. A man named Cleisthenes, who was born in 570 BC, and lead the “democratic revolution” of Athens. Cleisthenes was a ruler before 508 BC in Athens’ oligarchy, but then he created the idea for a democracy. Democracy was two Greek words that were put together to mean “rule by the people”. Only free Athenian men served in government, this promotes fairness, because according to Pericles “all” viewpoints are heard. Athenian democracy was a direct democracy where more citizens (but not women, therefore, women had no role in their government), or a person who has rights and responsibilities to their country had a direct role in their government. Everything was ordered by vote of the people. The vote was based on black and white pebbles, black pebbles meant no, and the white pebble meant yes. In this democracy everyone had equal rights, rich or poor, Pericles a leader from 450 BC- 429 BC made this so by letting rich or poor could be in the jury, a jury is a group of citizens who hear evidence and make decisions in courts of law.
Upholding the democracy According to Lycurgus the things that upheld the democracy of Athens were the system of laws, the vote of the jury, and the method of prosecution. The system of laws upheld the democracy, because without laws there would be chaos. The vote of the jury upheld the democracy, because without it, it simply wouldn’t be a democracy. The method of prosecution would uphold the democracy, because if there is no prosecution and someone does a crime they’re not getting punished for the crime they did. “The things which in the main uphold our democracy and preserve the city’s prosperity [wealth] are three in number: first the system of laws, second the vote of the jury, and the third the method of prosecution by which crimes are handed over to them [the juries].” --Lycurgus
Ostracizing People If citizens wanted to get someone out of the city they would ostracize them by voting on a broken shard of pottery, called a ostrica, once a year. The person’s name who appeared most would be out of the city. The Athenians could do this to literally anyone, being that they ostracized the man who lead them to victory in the Persian War, Themistocles. By 450 BC Pericles was the democratic leader. A picture of an Ancient Greek ostracon
Parts (branches) of Athenian Democracy The democracy consisted of three parts or branches: the courts, the citizen assembly (the part that voted), and the council of 500. The citizen assembly was something where there wasn’t much to it, the citizen assembly just voted on issues that concerned their city. The council of 500 is well… a council of 500, they prepared the agenda for the citizen assembly’s meetings. The council consisted of 50 people from each of the ten tribes that Aristotle divided Athens up into.
The Judicial Branch Courts were a crucial part of governing democracy, Aristotle once said that whoever owns the courts owns the state. The courts in Athens were very large jury courts, the smallest ones had 201 jury members (one to avoid tie in the vote)! Maybe there would be 500, 1,000, or 1,500! Even one time the court had 6,000 members on one case! There was no lawyers and no official court officials. Although there were no lawyers, there was two litigants, in today’s terms prosecutor, and defense attorney. One argued the act was committed, the other was a defense. You had to have witnesses to defend you in court in Ancient Athens. The court’s decision was based on the laws solely. The Thetes were masters of the law, because on most cases they were the jury and most cases came down to the jury Only the wealthiest owned these courts. Green, Middle, Greater, and Red courts were meant for lesser offences. Besides this there were four other courts, three that dealt with homicide, the other was a “high court” the Areopagus, the Palladion, the Delphinion , and the Prythaneion. The Areopagus was a high court where only serious cases were brought, the Palladion dealt with unintentional homicide, the Delphinion dealt with cases of justifiable homicide, and the Prythaneion dealt with homicide cases in which animals, inanimate objects, or unknown person were responsible for a death.
The Citizen Assembly The citizen assembly was something where there wasn’t much to it, the citizen assembly just voted on issues that concerned their city.
Pericles Funeral Speech In the Pericles Funeral Speech Pericles, an Athenian leader talks about how their democracy sets them apart from other city-states. On lines two and three Pericles says that the Athenians don’t copy their neighbors, but are an example to them with Athenian democracy. On lines three and four it says that they are a democracy with public service merit awards, otherwise the Athenian democracy is a rewarding democracy. This speech also says on lines eight-ten that anyone, no matter if he is poor or any other condition can do public service. On one hand you have work and on the other you have pleasure, and the two hands are balanced according to lines 11-13. Lines 14-17 and 19 say that Athenians welcome new products and ideas. On lines 18-20 and 23 Pericles explains that the Athenians’ military achievements are only, because they have strength and a good mind. Later on lines 27-29 the speech says that all citizens are expected to be involved politically. On lines 32-33 Pericles says discussion is the key to knowledge and success. Flexibility, adaptability, and versatility are key traits to success according to lines 35-37.
At first in the law system… There were no laws to start out in Greece in 900 BC, this was after the dark ages. However, soon there were laws.
The Draconian Constitution In 620 BC, the first official laws were made, by a man named Draco. Draco was from Athens. These laws were very harsh, so they had to be written in blood!!!! In fact the word Draconian (meaning excessively harsh) came from these laws! The only thing good about these laws was they distinguished murder and involuntary homicide. However, most things about these laws were bad, such as the death penalty being the punishment for even minor offences. Intentional murders are also punishable by death. However, according to the preserved part of the Draconian Constitution unintentional homicides aren’t punishable by death they deserve only a sentence of exile. Murder was a tort law according to Draco and the punishment was exile (tort law- when someone does harm to you or to harm your property).
