This was omnipresent (everywhere) in the ancient world. In the city state of Sparta, citizens had a civic duty to stay fit and be good soldiers. In Ancient Athens, citizens were expected to be well rounded, participate in the assembly, and enter military training at the age of 18.
Ancient Greece is remembered for developing democracy, inventing Western philosophy, realistic art, developing theater like comedy and tragedy, the Olympic Games, inventing pi, and the Pythagoras theorem.
One such type of governing body was the city-state or polis. Initially, the term polis referred to a fortified area or citadel which offered protection during times of war. Because of the relative safety these structures afforded, people flocked to them and set up communities and commercial centers.
The Greeks had cultural traits, a religion, and a language in common, though they spoke many dialects. The basic political unit was the city-state. Conflict between city-states was common, but they were capable of banding together against a common enemy, as they did during the Persian Wars (492–449 BCE).
The term Ancient, or Archaic, Greece refers to the years 700-480 B.C., not the Classical Age (480-323 B.C.) known for its art, architecture and philosophy. Archaic Greece saw advances in art, poetry and technology, but is known as the age in which the polis, or city-state, was invented.
Greek legacies are their governmental systems, culture and arts, and science and technology. Classical Greece was a time where the growth of a community held strong through times of plague, wars, and numerous breakthroughs. A major legacy left by classical Greece was a government based on direct democracy.
A city-state, or polis, was the community structure of ancient Greece. Each city-state was organized with an urban center and the surrounding countryside. Characteristics of the city in a polis were outer walls for protection, as well as a public space that included temples and government buildings.
Greek civilization developed into independent city-states because Greece's mountains, islands, and peninsulas separated the Greek people from each other and made communication difficult. The steep mountains of the Greek geography also affected the crops and animals that farmers raised in the region.
Athens was the largest and most influential of the Greek city-states. It had many fine buildings and was named after Athena, the goddess of wisdom and warfare. The Athenians invented democracy, a new type of government where every citizen could vote on important issues, such as whether or not to declare war.
Ancient Greece had a warm, dry climate, as Greece does today. Most people lived by farming, fishing and trade. Others were soldiers, scholars, scientists and artists. Greek cities had beautiful temples with stone columns and statues, and open-air theatres where people sat to watch plays.
Greek society was comprised of independent city-states that shared a culture and religion. Ancient Greeks were unified by traditions like the panhellenic games. Greek architecture was designed to facilitate religious ceremonies and common civic spaces.
The main social classes of ancient Greece consisted of slaves, metics (non-citizen free persons), women, and then citizens. To be a citizen, one had to be male. In each of these classes, there were a variety of sub-classes, such as the difference between aristocratic citizens and common citizens.
But, as the property of their master, Athenian slaves could still be sold off in the blink of an eye. Even Aristotle, arguably one of Athens’ more progressive thinkers, referred to enslaved people as ktêma empsuchon – a phrase that roughly translates as ‘animate property’, or ‘property that breathes’.
Enslaved people who lived and largely worked independently of their masters were those least likely to feel the iron rod of discipline. Athenian slaves, too, could be physically punished and even tortured, and enslaved people elsewhere were also subject to beatings.