More of Chapter 3 Outline

Today  in class we talked about the outline for LO3.  The first part of the outline we talked about the City-States and Citizens. The Greeks soldiers were called hoplities. They were Greek infantry men equipped with bronze helmets and armor, round shields, long spears, and short swords.  Then we talked about the Greek governments, Monarchy, Oligarchy, Tyranny, and Democracy. In the earliest time communities were ruled by kings. Monarchy then gave way to new forms of government that distributed power more widely among male citizens. Oligarchy was a minority of citizens that dominated the government and the power of the majority was limited in various ways. Other city states gave more power to the majority, particularly those that developed into large commercial centers.In these city-states the common people were too numerous and active to ignore. In these cities social conflicts sometimes led to the emergence of Tyranny, which is a rule by a dictator. Tyranny was often only a passing phase on the way to democracy, which was all government decisions were made by the majority of male citizens. Although  Greek city-states had many features in common, each was individual in character. Then he outline talked about Sparta: The Military Ideal. Spartans were descendants of Greeks who had conquered part of the southern main land called the Laconia. By 800 BC they were a minority of landholders ruling over  a majority of helots, which are non citizens forced to work for landholders. Messiaen helots, however frequently rebelled. This forced Spartans to accept a governmental system that put them under almost total domination by a few among themselves. By 500 BC policy decisions had been taken over by a council of elders. The spartan government was a leading example of Oligarchy. Spartan male life was dedicated entirely to the service of the state. The relative freedom of Spartan woman aroused admiration and disapproval  among other Greeks. To protect this way of life, Spartans tried to seal off their city- state form outside influences. After this we had the rest off class to finish any homework tat we might have.