Government of Ancient Greece

Government of ancient Greece: the Mask of Agamemnon, from Mycenae, Greece (1500 BC). Now in Athens

What kind of government did Ancient Greece have?

Ancient Greece had a lot of different kinds of governments, because there were many different city-states in ancient Greece.

What is a city-state?
More Ancient Greece articles

Each city-state had their own government. Some had kings, some had elected councils, some had councils that inherited power, and some had councils they chose by lottery.

People‘s ideas about what made a good government changed over time, too.

Aristotle and the government of Ancient Greece

Parthenon, Athens

The Greek philosopher Aristotle divided ancient Greek government into monarchies, oligarchies, tyrannies and democracies, and most historians still use these same categories. A monarchy is when a king or queen (or in Sparta two kings) rules the city-state.

An oligarchy is when a council of rich people inherits power from their parents. (Oligarchy means “the rule of the few.” A tyranny is when one of those oligarchs seizes power and rules illegally. And a democracy is when the people elect representatives, or choose them using a lottery system.

More about Aristotle

Spartan girl running (ca. 500 BC), maybe as part of religious games sponsored by her government

Most city-states in Greece started out by having monarchies, then oligarchies, then tyrannies and then democracies, but at each period ancient Greek government included plenty of city-states using a different system. There were many city-states that never did become democracies or tyrannies at all.

Bronze Age kings

In the Late Bronze Age (the Mycenaean period), between about 2000 and 1200 BC, all Greek city-states seem to have been monarchies, ruled by kings. Homer’s Iliad, and Greek mythology in general, shows us a whole series of kings like Agamemnon and Theseus, and some of their palaces have survived for archaeologists to dig up.

After the Dark Age, though, only a few Greek city-states still had kings. Sparta is the most famous of these, though actually Sparta had two kings, usually brothers or cousins, at the same time. One would stay home and the other go off to fight wars.

More about Late Bronze Age Greece
More about Sparta’s kings

Iron Age oligarchies and tyrants

In the Iron Age, the government of ancient Greece moved away from kings. People started to feel that having a king was a little old-fashioned. Instead, oligarchies ruled most Greek city-states in the Archaic period. Both Athens and Thebes had oligarchies at this time. An oligarchy is a group of aristocrats (rich men) who tell everyone else what to do.

Then in the 600s and 500s BC tyrants took over a lot of Greek city-states. A tyrant was usually one of the aristocrats who got power over the others by getting the support of the poor people. Tyrants ruled alone, kind of like kings, but without any legal right to rule. A tyrant was like a Mafia boss: he had power, and he had the support of the people. The tyrant’s power was informal, and often violent. On the other hand, to get the support of the people, tyrants often did help people. Sometimes they redistributed land, or forgave people’s debts, for example.

More about oligarchy
More about tyrants
How did people fall into debt?

Classical Greece: Democracy

Government of ancient Greece: Potsherd used to vote for Themistocles (can you see his name written on it?)

In 510 BC, the city-state of Athens created the first democratic government, and soon other Greek city-states imitated them. City-states that weren’t Greek, like Carthage and Rome, also experimented with giving the poor people more power in the late 500s BC.

Athens and democracy

But Athenian democracy did not really give power to everyone. Most of the people in Athens couldn’t vote – no women, no slaves, no foreigners (even Greeks from other city-states), no children.

Slavery in ancient Greece
Women in ancient Greece
Xenia and immigration

These were the tokens Athenian juries used to vote: there’s solid ones on the left and hollow ones on the right.

And also, Athens at this time had an empire, ruling over many other Greek city-states, and none of those people living in the other city-states could vote either. Of course it is a lot easier to have a democratic government when you are only deciding what other people should do. Athenians didn’t even have to charge themselves any taxes!

The Athenian empire

But not all Greek city-states became democracies. Many Greek city-states, like Sparta, kept oligarchic government, or tyrannies, or monarchies, through this whole time. Thebes only became a democracy in the 300s BC)

Sparta’s government

What did Greek government do?

Hoplite soldiers (Chigi Vase, ca. 640 BC)

Whatever kind of government you had, ancient Greek governments all had pretty much the same responsibilities. The most important thing was to organize an army that could defend the city-state against invasions. Greek governments also negotiated treaties and trade agreements with other Greek cities, and with the Scythians, the Persians, the Egyptians, Carthage, and the Etruscans in Italy. It built port facilities so that ships could dock there.

Ancient Greek economy
Greek wars and warfare

Inside the city, the government ran a police force to keep the peace. Most of the police were enslaved men, often from Scythia. They didn’t have prisons, but the government took charge of executing criminals, exiling them, or whipping them. The government collected taxes and tolls.

Women getting water at public fountain

It built temples and ran religious festivals like the Olympic Games so the city could stay on the good side of the gods. Greek city governments built public water fountains and drains to keep stormwater out of the streets.  Ancient Greek government was not generally involved in health care or in schools.

 Greek water systems
The Parthenon
The Olympic Games

Did we answer your questions about the government of Ancient Greece? Read more about democracy in Classical Athens. Or ask your questions in the comments!

Learn by doing: design your own perfect government
More about Ancient Greek government
Or about oligarchy
More about tyrants
More about Athenian democracy

Bibliography and further reading about ancient Greek government:

Oxford First Ancient History, by Roy Burrell and Peter Connolly (1997). Lively interviews and pictures make the ancient Mediterranean come to life. For teens.

Cleisthenes: Founder of Athenian Democracy, by Sarah Parton (2002). A biography of the founder of Athenian democracy.

Athenian Democracy, by A.H.M. Jones (reprinted 1986). One of the great social historians of the 20th century, though this isn’t easy going.

Alternatives to Athens: Varieties of Political Organization and Community in Ancient Greece, a collection of essays edited by Roger Brock and Stephen Hodkinson (2003). Each chapter presents a different kind of Greek government: oligarchies, tyrannies, monarchies, and so on. By specialists, for specialists.

Rome, the Greek World, and the East: Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman Empire, by Fergus Millar, Hannah M. Cotton, and Guy Rogers (2004). Millar is an expert on Roman government. This book deals with how the Romans governed in Greece.

Ottoman Centuries, by Lord Kinross (1979). A short introduction to Ottoman government, for the non-specialist. It’s a little out of date, so it doesn’t consider the role of Islam, or the role of women, as much as it might have.

More about Greek government
Ancient Greece
Quatr.us home