26. THE GREEK CITY-STATE
NATURE OF THE CITY STATE
The Greeks in Homeric times had already begun to live in towns and cities. A Greek city, being independent and self-governing, is properly called a city-state. Just as a modern nation, it could declare war, arrange treaties, and make alliances with its neighbors. Such a city-state included not only the territory within its walls, but also the surrounding district where many of the citizens lived.
THE CITIZENS
The members of a Greek city-state were very closely associated. The citizens believed themselves to be descended from a common ancestor and so to be all related. They were united, also, in the worship of the patron god or hero who had them under his protection. These ties of supposed kinship and common religion were of the utmost importance. They made citizenship a privilege which came to a person only by birth, a privilege which he lost by removal to another city. Elsewhere he was only a foreigner without legal rights—a man without a country.
GOVERNMENT OF THE CITY-STATE
The Homeric poems, which give us our first view of the Greek city-state, also contain the most ancient account of its government. Each city-state had a king, "the shepherd of the people" [19] as Homer calls him. The king did not possess absolute authority. He was surrounded by a council of nobles, chiefly the great landowners of the community. They helped him in judgment and sacrifice, followed him to war, and filled the principal offices. Both king and nobles were obliged to consult the common people on matters of great importance. For this purpose the ruler would summon the citizens to the market place to hear the deliberations of his council and to settle such questions as making war or declaring peace. All men of free birth could attend the assembly, where they shouted assent to the decision of their leaders or showed disapproval by silence. This public assembly had little importance in the Homeric Age, but later it became the center of Greek democracy.
POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY-STATE
After the middle of the eighth century B.C., when historic times began in Greece, some interesting changes took place in the government of the city- states. In some of them, for example, Thebes and Corinth, the nobles became strong enough to abolish the kingship altogether. Monarchy, the rule of one, thus gave away to aristocracy, [20] the rule of the nobles. In other states, for instance, Sparta and Argos, the kings were not driven out, but their power was much weakened. Some states came under the control of usurpers whom the Greeks called "tyrants." A tyrant was a man who gained supreme power by force and governed for his own benefit without regard to the laws. There were many tyrannies in the Greek world during the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. Still other states went through an entire cycle of changes from kingship to aristocracy, from aristocracy to tyranny, and from tyranny to democracy or popular rule.