Athens

Question 1

What are the qualifications for citizenship?

Answer 1

• qualifications for citizenship - male, over 18, born of Athenian parents, registered with deme, 2 years military
service
• women, slaves and metics not allowed to be citizens

Question 2

How did slaves help to run the democracy?

Answer 2

• slaves used to help run the democracy - Scythian archers, administration clerks, doing the jobs of the
farmers/workers while the citizens were voting

Question 3

Describe the Assembly:

Answer 3

• assembly meets on the Pynx (hillside near Athens) - 6000 citizens needed for important votes
• voting by a show of hands - better for people in the city to get to the voting assemblies - difficult for people
living in the countryside
• assembly not well attended - Scythian Arches with red rope to get citizens to go and vote
• assembly discussed decisions of warfare, food supplies, defence, etc. 4 meetings per prytany (month)
• assembly could be easily swayed by good speakers - lots of uneducated voters in Athens

Question 4

Describe the boule:

Answer 4

• boule - council of 500 - 50 men from each of the demes (tribes) must be over 30 years old; selected by lot
(random); could only serve as a member of the jury twice
• boule - receive foreign ambassadors; deal with emergency situations; oversee the election and conduct of
the magistrates and generals; responsible for the day to day running of Athens; responsible for ensuring
that any decisions made by the assembly were carried out
• boule councillors had to take an oath and be subject to scrutiny after their year in office; each deme ran the
boule for 1 prytany each year
• boule - uneducated/uninterested people could be selected as members; very democratic - did not
discriminate between poor and rich citizens

Question 5

Describe the generals:

Answer 5

• generals - 10 elected every year; served for one year; could be elected several times (Pericles was general
14 times); had to be rich; were only paid during military service.
• generals were more symbolic - didn’t lead military campaigns often - taxiarchos were the soldiers who led
the armies
• generals were in charge of the maintenance of the city fortifications; control the city’s finances; be
ambassadors to other city states when needed
• some generals were more popular than others; supposed to all be equal; from upper-classes so didn’t know
much about the poor classes

Question 6

Describe archons

Answer 6

• archons - 9 archons/magistrates selected per year; paid 4 obols per day; assist the generals; mostly
selected by lot; some incompetent archons but only held the post for 1 year;
• archons - organised religious festivals; looked over the courts and legal matters

Question 7

Describe ostracism

Answer 7

• ostracism - getting rid of a politician/citizen who was believed to have too much power; 6000 citizens
required to vote; name of the citizen scratched onto a piece of pottery; selected citizen exiled for 10 years;
kept their status and property; better than killing (less violent); could be recalled at any time; if caught in
Athens before 10 years punished by death;
• ostracism gave citizens a voice; many people were illiterate and didn’t know what was written on the pottery;
powerful politicians used ostracism as weapon to get rid of their opponents

Question 8

What are metics?

Answer 8

• metics - foreigners in Athens; could not vote in the assembly; had to pay taxes; were expected to contribute
to theatrical choruses; couldn’t own land; couldn’t appear in court (had to be represented by an Athenian
patron);
• metics - lots of metics in Athens - they must have liked it there; often rewarded for services to the state;
were allowed to own slaves; some were rich and some poor; probably very little difference between metics
and citizens; some metics had better quality of lives than Athenian citizens

Question 9

What are hetaerae?

Answer 9

• hetaerae - special class of metic - high class prostitute - it was acceptable for men to discuss issues of
politics and philosophy with them rather than their wives

Question 10

How was policing in Athens?

Answer 10

• No police force in Athens; Scythian archers used to ‘police’ the city; they did not pursue criminals or detect
crime - mostly just used as crowd control in the assembly and law courts.
• citizens accused of a crime were tried in a court by other citizens; special court for murder tried by old men
• Individuals had to bring cases about, there was no public prosecutor; accusers had to win at least 1/5 of the
jury vote to ensure people weren’t taking others to court for no-reason or out of spite

Question 11

Describe how a jury works in Athens:

Answer 11

• jurors had to be male; over 30 years old; didn’t need any education qualifications; had to be a citizen of
Athens
• randomly selected by a kleoterion machine - everyone had a chance to be selected
• juries ranged in size between 201-501 men; this made bribery almost impossible
• jurors were paid a small amount (3 obols) for their service - this appealed to the poor and the elderly
• jurors decided on the punishment if the accused was found guilty; no judges in an Athenian law court -
Archon watched over the trial but he didn’t have any power to impose a verdict

Question 12

How does a trial work in an ancient court?

Answer 12

• the accuser and the offender appear before a magistrate and the evidence they have is written down;
• first day of the trial, the accused and the accuser make long speeches - these speeches were timed by
water-clocks. This made length of each speech equal to ensure that no one man had longer than the other
• each man spoke on his own behalf - rich people were able to employ professional speech writers who were
able to train the citizens on the best way to speak
• many of the arguments would not be allowed in a modern court - they used excerpts from plays, individual
accounts, emotional responses.
• many speakers tried to appeal to the emotions of the jury; a man might bring his children and wife dressed
in rages to gain the sympathy of the jury
• both speakers had to swear that they were telling the truth

Question 13

How were verdicts passes in an Athenian court?

Answer 13

• after the speeches, the verdicts were passed - guilty or not guilty
• each juror had to place a pebble the jar marked guilty or not guilty
• if guilty - the prosecutor decided on the penalty - the defendant had the right to propose an alternative
punishment - the accuse is likely to suggest something that the jury would accept
• punishment options were - fine, exile, death; there were no jail sentences

Question 14

How was an Athenian jury effective?

Answer 14

• decisions were not made by one man which was a strength of the legal system
• juries were impossible to bribe
• people had life experience before sitting as a juror

Question 15

How was a jury unfair and ineffective?

Answer 15

• juries could be easily swayed by eloquent speakers
• many jurors had no knowledge of the Athenian legal system and passed judgement based on their emotions
and personal feelings
• there was no restrictions on the types of evidence that could be used in a case e.g. in the trial of Socrates
excerpts from Aristophanes’ plays were used to condemn his character
• many juries were filled with old and poor people
• many jurors were only interested in the paid rather than delivering justice
• women were restricted from representing themselves in court - had to be represented by a male
• slaves had to be tortured to give evidence as it was believed that they would naturally lie and only through
torture would they tell the truth

Question 16

How much control did women have over themselves?

Answer 16

• Women did not have control over their own bodies and had to submit to the requests/demands of her
husband - this included having forced sex
• women were not able to initiate a divorce - divorce had to come from the husband or from the girl’s father (it
was very uncommon for a girl to get her family to bring a divorce against her husband)
• women could be forced to commit suicide if she was returned to her family because of the shame she
brought with her
• single girls were seen as a burden on their family - all girls were encouraged to marry
• Athenian women were always under the control of a male guardian (father, husband or eldest living male
relative)
- Women could not represent themselves legally in the courts in Athens - but they could be represented by
their husband, father or appointed male relation. Women did have rights but were not able to represent
themselves

Question 17

What did a good Athenian woman look like?

Answer 17

• ‘Good’ Athenian women were expected to remain at home and maintain the household by organising the
slaves; raising children; weaving in their own women only room (gynaikeion); looking after the sick; carry out
funeral rites; not leave the house without a male guardian

Question 18

How was life for a poorer woman different from a richer woman?

Answer 18

• Poorer women in Athens might have been expecte3d to go out and work to earn more money for the
household; this was not expected of wealthier women or women has higher social status

Question 19

What gender was it better to have as a baby?

Answer 19

• Families preferred to have boys rather than girls as boys were able to continue the family line and did not
cost the family money in wedding preparations (dowry)

Question 20

How was birth in Athens?

Answer 20

• Birth was a dangerous process for all women in Athens - many died due to complications during the
pregnancy, complications during the birth, or infections after the birth. Girls were married off at a young age
to give them the best possible chance of surviving the pregnancy

Question 21

What is exposure of a baby?

Answer 21

Many young girls were exposed in Athens - this was the process of throwing a baby out to die - this might be
because they were deformed, ill, weak, a girl, the parentage of the child was questionable i.e. the mother
was suspected to have had an affair, or simply that the family could not afford to feed the child

Question 22

How were girls raised?

Answer 22

• Most young children were raised by their mothers but girls had a slightly different upbringing to the boys.
Girls were trained by their mothers in the skills required to run a household, cooking, cleaning, weaving,
managing slaves, being a good wife. If the father could afford it, boys might receive a formal education or be
trained in the skills of the family business or trade.

Question 23

What was marriage for women like?

Answer 23

Girls were usually married off between the ages of 12-14 in Athens. They was usually about the same time
they could produce children. Their husbands would be significantly older than them. Girls were unlikely to
know their husbands well; marriages were arrangements between husbands and fathers - they were not
based on love.
• sacrifices were made to Artemis before the wedding; procession from family home to groom home; bridal
chamber prepared; singing outside of the room while marriage being consummated

Question 24

How did some women work and make money?

Answer 24

Some women worked in the agora at market stalls; some worked as midwives; wet-nurses; on famers - this
was usually the work of poorer women who had to contribute to the home
• jobs for slave/metic women included: entertainers, dancers, musicians, singers, prostitutes
• there were two types of prostitute - pornai & hetaerae - pornai were lower class and hetaerae were upper
class - it was more acceptable for men to discuss politics and philosophy with hetaerae than with their wives
- hetaerae were quite intellectual and sophisticated.
• Pericles married a prominent hetaerae which must have caused a stir in Athenian society as the hetaerae
(called Aspasia) was not an Athenian citizen

Question 25

What roles did women play in Greek religion?

Answer 25

• Women played an important role in Greek religion; they were priestesses to Athena, Artemis and Demeter
• organised and carried out religious practices at festivals - they were believed to be better at serving the gods
• women responsible for ensuring the correct burial rites were given to the dead
• religion was one of the only areas in Athenian society where women had some authority and freedom from
male control - there were some women only festivals such as the Thesmophoria and Skira.