- aristocrats attended symposiums
- symposiums: meetings where the elite men would enjoy wine, poetry,performances by dancers and acrobats, and discussed politics
- nobody in history had ever given their people power up until this point
- no women in politics, except maybe as a wife or "entertainment"
- no middle class allowed in symposiums and certainly, no slaves
- sometimes even aristocrats (who didnt have the right connections and fell out of favor) were excluded
- aristocrats would form alliances with hoplites
- hoplites: well armed soldiers
- tyrant was someone who seized power from the people in charge or set up their own shadow government
- Draco (621 BCE)
- all Athenians, rich and poor, are equal under the law
- but death is the punishment for many cromes
- debt slavery is ok ( work as slave to repay debts)
- Solon's reforms (594 BCE)
- outlaws debt slavery
- all athenian citizens can speak at the assembly
- any citizen can press charges against wrongdoers
- draconian:man overly harsh punishment for something
- Cleisthenes' reforms (500 BCE)
- allowed all citizens to submit laws for debate at the assembly
- created the counsel of 500
- still no women, slaves, or "foreigners"
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