Pan-Hellenic Institutions

• Homeric poems as cultural icons
• Oracle at Delphi
• Olympic Games (from 776)

• Contact w/ Phoenicians
• Main centers: Corinth, Athens

• Alphabetic writing (< Phoenicians)
• Coinage (< Lydia)
• Artistic techniques (<N. East, Egypt)

• Sicily & S. Italy (“Magna Graecia”)
• N. Africa: Cyrene
• S. France: Massilia (mod. Marseille)
• Thrace & Black Sea coast

Rise of the polis (“city-state”)

• City & surrounding countryside
• Centered on citadel (acropolis)
• Politically independent
• Aristotle: man is a politikon zôon

• Infantry w/ overlapping shields
• Stress on teamwork, not individual
• Empowers small farmers, tradesmen

Political Organization

• Oligarchy (< oligos, “few”)
• Tyranny (< tyrannos, “sole ruler”)
• Democracy (< demos, “people, mob”)

Early System (by 7th c.)

• Assembly of citizens elects 9 annual magistrates (archons)
• Archonship restricted to aristocrats
• Ex-archons form Areopagus council

Reforms of Solon (594)

• Abolition of debt slavery
• Creates 4 political classes
• Status based on wealth (not birth)
• Judicial reforms

Democracy of Cleisthenes (509/8)