SOCIAL CLASSES
In my perfect world it would be democratic, and there would be no slaves or any type of social class. Unfortunately, excluding the time of creation, the world is not and has never been perfect. In Ancient Greece there were four different social classes. The privileged upper-class were those that ruled Athens. Native by birth they enjoyed social excess and great wealth. The upper class were practically the head of all enterprise and endeavour and were referred to as natives. The Middle class was next in the hierarchy. Not born to privilege in Athens they were referred to as the metrics and generally came from surrounding regions to settle and work in Athens. The metrics were free people having never been slaves. They enjoyed as…
This was not always the case and in ancient Greece things were very different. Many cities were controlled by Tyrants who ruled with an iron fist and they were overthrown leading to what were called democratic elections. The elections were held to install leaders that represented the majority rule. The first democratic elections are credited to Greece and whilst very different to our elections today they set the foundations of our current electoral systems. The word Democracy comes from the word Demos meaning people and Kratos meaning rule. It was the end of the Archaic Period (800 BC – 480 BC) and this new system provided an opportunity for upper class men to vote (non-citizens, women and slaves were excluded) and install the powerful Strategoi (Greek word that means military general) into positions of power. Under the democratic system the most important of people were the strategoi. The strategoi were 10 military commanders who would be elected annually. One strategoi was chosen from each tribal area and popular strategoi including Pericles were re-elected many times. Nine archons (Greek word that means “ruler” or “lord,” frequently used as the title of a specific public office) were also chosen annually although their duty was more ceremonial than political. Basileus Archons presided over law courts and arranged religion sacrifices. Eponymous Archons chose the men who financed the coral and drama concerts and Polemarch Archons were in charge of the athletics contests held to commemorate men killed in battle. While many places around the world today, still suffer injustices it is safe to say that democracy has come a long way in the past 2500 years and for that I thank the ancient Greeks for getting the ball rolling. I’m certain they didn’t think all that time ago that one day a democratic country as free and inclusive as Australia would exist and a young multi race…
