Early European History. Hutton Webster
TYPES OF THE CITY-STATE
The isolated and independent Greek communities thus developed at an early period many different kinds of government. To study them all would be a long task. It is better to fix our attention on the two city-states which held the principal place in Greek history and at the same time presented the most striking contrasts in government and social life. These were Sparta and Athens.
27. THE GROWTH OF SPARTA (TO 500 B.C.)
SPARTA AND THE PELOPONNESIAN LEAGUE
The Greek invaders who entered southern Greece, or the Peloponnesus, [21] were known as Dorians. They founded the city of Sparta, in the district of Laconia. By the close of the sixth century B.C. the Spartans were able to conquer their immediate neighbors and to organize some of the city-states of the Peloponnesus into a strong confederacy called the Peloponnesian League. The members of the league did not pay tribute, but they furnished troops to serve in war under Spartan leaders, and they looked to Sparta for guidance and protection. Thus this single city became the foremost power in southern Greece.
SPARTA A MILITARY CAMP
It is clear that the Spartans must have been an extremely vigorous and warlike people. Their city, in fact, formed a military camp, garrisoned by soldiers whose whole life was passed in war and in preparation for war. The Spartans were able to devote themselves to martial pursuits because they possessed a large number of serfs, called helots. The helots tilled the lands of the Spartans and gave up to their masters the entire product of their labor, except what was necessary for a bare subsistence.
GOVERNMENT OF SPARTA
Spartan government also had a military character. In form the state was a kingdom, but since there were always two kings reigning at once and enjoying equal authority, neither of them could become very powerful. The real management of public affairs lay in the hands of five men, known as ephors, who were elected every year by the popular assembly. The ephors accompanied the kings in war and directed their actions; guided the deliberations of the council of nobles and the assembly of freemen; superintended the education of children; and exercised a general oversight of the private life of citizens. The ephors had such absolute control over the lives and property of the Spartans that we may describe their rule as socialistic and select Sparta as an example of ancient state socialism. Nowhere else in the Greek world was the welfare of the individual man so thoroughly subordinated to the interests of the society of which he formed a unit.
THE SPARTAN BOY
Spartan education had a single purpose—to produce good soldiers and obedient citizens. A sound body formed the first essential. A father was required to submit his son, soon after birth, to an inspection by the elders of his tribe. If they found the child puny or ill-shaped, they ordered it to be left on the mountain side, to perish from exposure. At the age of seven a boy was taken from his parents' home and placed in a military school. Here he was trained in marching, sham fighting, and gymnastics. He learned to sing warlike songs and in conversation to express himself in the fewest possible words. Spartan brevity of speech became proverbial. Above all he learned to endure hardship without complaint. He went barefoot and wore only a single garment, winter and summer. He slept on a bed of rushes. Every year he and his comrades had to submit to a flogging before the altar of the goddess Artemis, and the hero was the lad who could bear the whipping longest without giving a sign of pain. It is said that boys sometimes died under the lash rather than utter a cry. Such ordeals are still a feature of savage life to-day.
THE ADULT SPARTAN
On reaching the age of twenty the youth was considered a warrior. He did not live at home, but passed his time in barracks, as a member of a military mess to which he contributed his proper share of food, wine, and money. At the age of thirty years the young Spartan became a full citizen and a member of the popular assembly. He was then compelled to marry in order to raise children for the state. But marriage did not free him from attendance at the public meals, the drill ground, and the gymnasium. A Spartan, in fact, enjoyed little home life until his sixtieth year, when he became an elder and retired from actual service.
EXCELLENCE OF THE SPARTAN SOLDIERY
This exclusive devotion to military pursuits accomplished its object. The Spartans became the finest soldiers of antiquity. "All the rest of the Greeks," says an ancient writer, "are amateurs; the Spartans are professionals in the conduct of war." [22] Though Sparta never produced great thinkers, poets or artists, her military strength made her the bulwark of Greece against foreign foes. The time was to come when Greece, to retain her liberties, would need this disciplined Spartan soldiery. [23]
28. THE GROWTH OF ATHENS (to 500 B.C.)
ATHENS AS A CITY-STATE
The district of Attica, though smaller than our smallest American commonwealth, was early filled with a number of independent city-states. It was a great step in advance when, long before the dawn of Greek history, these tiny communities were united with Athens. The inhabitants of the Attic towns and villages gave up their separate governments and became members of the one city-state of Athens. Henceforth a man was a Athenian citizen, no matter in what part of Attica he lived.
OPPRESSIVE RULE OF THE NOBLES
At an earlier period, perhaps, than elsewhere in Greece, monarchy at Athens disappeared before the rising power of the nobles. The rule of the nobility bore harshly on the common people. Popular discontent was especially excited at the administration of justice. There were at first no written laws, but only the long-established customs of the community. Since all the judges were nobles, they were tempted to decide legal cases in favor of their own class. The people, at length, began to clamor for a written code. They could then know just what the laws were.
DRACO'S CODE, 621 B.C.
After much agitation an Athenian named Draco was employed to write out a code for the state. The laws, as published, were very severe. The penalty for most offenses, even the smallest theft, was death. The Athenians used to declare that the Draconian code had been written, "not in ink, but in blood." Its publication, however, was a popular triumph and the first step toward the establishment of Athenian democracy.
LEGISLATION OF SOLON, 594–593 B.C.
The second step was the legislation of Solon. This celebrated Athenian was accounted among the wisest men of his age. The people held him in high honor and gave him power to make much-needed reforms. At this time the condition of the Attic peasants was deplorable. Many of them had failed to pay their rent to the wealthy landowners, and according to the old custom were being sold into slavery. Solon abolished the custom and restored to freedom all those who had been enslaved for debt. He also limited the amount of land which a noble might hold. By still another law he admitted even the poorest citizens to the popular assembly, where they could vote for magistrates and judge of their conduct after their year of office was over. By giving the common people a greater share in the government, Solon helped forward the democratic movement at Athens.
TYRANNY OF PISISTRATUS, 560–527 B.C.
Solon's reforms satisfied neither the nobility nor the commons. The two classes continued their rivalry until the disorder of the times enabled an ambitious politician to gain supreme power as a tyrant. [24] He was Solon's own nephew, a noble named Pisistratus. The tyrant ruled with moderation and did much to develop the Athenian city-state. He fostered agriculture by dividing the lands of banished nobles among the peasants. His alliances with neighboring cities encouraged the rising commerce of Athens. The city itself was adorned with handsome buildings by architects and sculptors whom Pisistratus invited to his court from all parts of Greece.
REFORMS OF CLISTHENES, 508–507