Key Terms

• polis 


  Often translated as "city-state" - referring to a city and all the surrounding land it controlled as one political entity
• Eupatridai


  The land owning aristocrats of Attica in the 7th century
• Archon 


  An Athenian magistrate
• Archon basileus


  The Archon responsible for religious matters
• Polemarch


  The Archon in charge of the Athenian army
• Eponymous Archon 


  The Archon responsible for a range of civil matters (temples, festivals etc.)
• Thesmothetai


  The six Archons responsible for legal matters
• Council of the Areopagus 


  The aristocratic council all ex-archons -> judges legal cases
• Tyrant 


  A sole ruler who has taken over his polis unconstitutionally
• Hektemoroi


  Tenant farmers who had to pay their landlords dues of the produce of the land they farmed
• Alcmaeonids 


  a powerful aristocratic clan in Athens which was exiled after the Cylon affair
• seisachtheia


  the "shaking off of burdens" - a word used by Aristotle and Plutarch to describe Solon's cancellation of debts
• Medimnoi


  a unit of measure roughly equivalent to 55 litres
• Pentakosiomedimnoi


  the top economic class of men who produce more than 500 medimnoi a year
• Hippeis


  the second economic class of men who produce more than 300 medimnoi a year
• Zeugitai


  the third economic class of men who produce more than 200 medimnoi a year
• Thetes


  the lowest economic class of men who produce less than 200 medimnoi
• Tribe 


  a division of Athenian society with common ties of religion
• Kyrbeis 


  rotating panels in the Agora which displayed Solon's new laws
• Agora


  The marketplace where economic, political, social and religious events took place
• Heliaia


  the name given to the peoples court instituted by solon
• Oligarchy


  Rule of state by a minority of citizens
• Demos


  the ancient Greek word to describe the people in the city state
• Deme


  a village or district which was the smallest political constituency in the Athenian democratic system
• Demarch


  An annually elected leader of a deme’s council
• Trittyes


  the thirty zones of Attica, each of which made up a third of a tribe
• Eponymous Heroes


  the ten legendary Athenian heroes who lent their names to the ten new tribes
• Phatry


  A “brotherhood” - a subdivision of the old four tribes of Athens
• Boule


  The council of 500 annually selected citizens who prepared business for the assembly
• sortition 


  the practice of selection by lot
• Ostracism 


  an annual vote to banish one prominent citizen for a period of ten years
• Ostrakon


  a piece of broken pottery on which a citizen wrote the name of the person they wanted to ostracise
• Quorum


  the minimum number of voters needed to make a decision valid
• Kerameikos


  The potter’ district in Athens, near the agora, where many Ostraka have been found
• Strategoi


  the generals of Athens, there were 10 in all, one from each tribe, who were elected on an annual basis
• Isegoria


  “The equal right to speech” a word often used to describe Athenian democracy
• Isnomia


  “equality in law” a words often used to describe Athenian democracy
• Trirmene


  The state-of-the-art warships of the 5th century Greek world
• Delian League


  A defensive league of numerous cities formed in 477 to guard against another Persian invasion
• Metic 


  a registered non-Athenian without the rights to citizenship