UNIT 4: Warm up #2 – Systems of Government in Ancient Greece
1. In the table below, define each system of government (preferably in your own
words). Create a visual representation of each system of government.
Monarchy:
Oligarchy:
Tyranny:
Democracy:
Definition:
Definition:
Definition:
Definition:
Visual:
Visual:
Visual:
Visual:
2. Based on your understanding of Ancient Greek city – states, draw a basic diagram
(a sketch or an outline) that shows a polis, agora, and/or acropolis.
3. Systems of Government: SPARTA and ATHENS:
SPARTA:
ATHENS:
System of Government:
System of Government:
Support your answer:
Support your answer:
Social Structure (society):
Explain LIMITED DEMOCRACY
4. What is the difference between these forms of government?
ARISTOCRACY v. OLIGARCHY
5. Reforms Introduced by Athenian Leaders:
Reforms:
Leader:
Draco



Introduced harsh law code (severe punishments and exiles)
All Athenians, rich and poor, were equal under the law
Upheld debt slavery


Cut taxes for the poor
Created a band of traveling judges who would dispense justice
around Athens
Promoted a program to beatify Athens and supported arts
Allowed the Athenian elites to regain their positions of power (ex:
archonships- magistrates, or city officials)
Good for
Democracy?
Solon
Pisistratus
(ruled Athens
from 546-527
BCE)
Cleisthenes


Yes, but not
entirely
(limited
reforms)
6. Status of women in Athens and Sparta
Doc.1 :
Doc.2:
Plutarch, Hipparete, Wife of Alkibiades,
Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians
c. 420 BCE
(Spartans). 4th cent. B.C.
Hipparete was a virtuous and dutiful wife,
but at last growing impatient because of the
outrages done to her by her husband's
continual entertaining of hetaerae
[courtesans], strangers as well as
Athenians, she departed from him and
retired to her brother's house. Alkibiades
seemed not at all concerned at this, and
lived on still in the same luxury; but the
law required that she should deliver to the
archon, in person, and not by proxy, the
instrument by which she claimed a divorce;
and when, in obedience thereto, she
presented herself before the archon to
perform this, Alkibiades came in, caught
her up, and carried her home through the
market place, no one daring to oppose him
or to take her from him. She continued with
him till her death, which happened not long
after, when Alkibiades had gone to
Ephesos.
The other Greeks think that girls ought to sit in
isolation doing wool work, leading a sedentary
existence like many craftsmen. How could they expect
that girls raised in this way could produce significant
offspring? (1.4) By contrast, Lycurgus [King of
Sparta] thought that slave women could make a
sufficient quantity of clothing.
But as far as free women were concerned, because he
thought childbearing was their most important
function, he decreed that the female sex ought to take
bodily exercise no less than the male. He established
competitions of running and of strength for women
with one another, just as he did for the men, because
he thought that stronger offspring would be born if
both parents were strong.
(1.5) As for a wife's sexual relations with her husband,
Lycurgus saw that men in other cultures during the
first part of the time had unlimited intercourse with
their wives, but he knew that the opposite was right.
He made it a disgrace for the husband to be seen
approaching or leaving his wife. As a result it was
inevitable that their desire for intercourse increased,
and that as a result the offspring (if there were any)
that were born were stronger than if the couple were
tired of each other.
Based on the documents, what can be concluded about the status and rights of
women in Athens and Sparta? Do you see any differences in the treatment of
women?