Exercises on the formation of the Greek polis

(Vunesp-SP) The classical city-state seems to have been created in parallel by the Greeks and the Etruscans and/or Romans. In the case of the latter, the Greek influence was undeniable, although difficult to assess and measure.

CARDOSO, Ciro Flamarion. The ancient city-state . 1985.

Point out what were the common characteristics of the classic city-states.

1. They had tripartite government in assembly, council, and a certain number of magistrates chosen from among eligible men;
2. Citizens could participate directly in the political process;
3. There was a separation between the organs of government and justice;

1. Statements I and II are correct.
2. Only statement III is correct.
3. Statements I and III are correct.
4. Only statement II is correct.
5. Statements I, II and III are correct.

(UFC-CE) “In the ancient Greek city, being a citizen meant not only being part of a ‘national’ entity, but also participating in a common life.”

MOSSÉ, Claude. The citizen in ancient Greece . Lisbon:Editions 70, 1999. p. 51.

Based on the above statement, it can be correctly understood that life in the polis, for the citizen, meant:

1. break with religion and myths and adopt the way of life proposed by philosophers, that of spreading philosophy and democracy to all Greek city-states.
2. realize the Greek ideal of political, military, geographic, economic, religious and cultural unification of all city-states and thus suppress tyrannies and oligarchies.
3. must exercise a judiciary throughout life, since political learning for all represented the guarantee of social well-being and the maintenance of democracy.
4. to form a body of subjects, whose political decisions were oriented towards the maintenance of the economic and religious power of the families that owned the fleets that traded in the Mediterranean.
5. integrate a community that aimed at its common good through political decisions, the adoption of a military defense and religious practices that sought benefits and protection from the gods of the city.

In the process of formation of the Greek polis, the closest relatives of the pater became members of the class of the Eupatrids , a Greek term meaning the same as “well-born”. Then there were the Georgoi (“farmers”), who formed the class of small landowners that still existed. Finally, in the lowest stratum of this social formation were the Thetas (“marginal”), who did not have any type of agricultural property.

This configuration of the Greek polis was the result of a more primitive social formation known as:

1. slavery
2. primitive communism
3. anarchism
4. manorship
5. Gentile Communities

In a schematic explanation of the formation of the Greek polis, its evolution can be presented as follows:

1. Individual → Genos → Phratria → Tribe → City-state → Demos.
2. Individual → Genos → Phratria → Tribe → Demos → City-state.
3. Individual → Phratria → Genos → Demos → Tribe → City-state.
4. Individual → Genos → Tribe → Phratria → Demos → City-state.
5. Individual → Tribe → Phratria → Genos → Demos → City-state.

Look at the image below:

The building is the Parthenon, located on the Acropolis of Athens, the highest site in the city. It met the Council that ruled the city in the Homeric Period, composed of aristocrats who were known as:

1. genos
2. georgóis
3. thetas
4. philobasileo
5. Eupatrids

Letter A . Statement III is not correct because there is no separation between government and justice bodies, with magistrates exercising both types of functions.

Letter E . Life in Greek city-states presupposed civic activity shared with other citizens, not so much in search of unity with other city-states. Sharing included all aspects of social life, such as religious, military and political.

Letter E . With population growth and the concentration of the best lands in the closest relatives of the pater , the gentile communities dissolved, giving rise in Greece to the city-states.

Letter B . In the process of formation of the Greek polis, the union of individuals of a family group led to the formation of genos, which in their development process constituted the phratries as a form of military protection of some genos against others. From the union of the phratries, the tribes were formed. However, the social disintegration of the genos, with a new social division, led to the demos (the people) starting to organize itself differently, now in the city-states, controlled by the aristocrats.

Letter E . The Eupatrids were the “well-born”, the closest relatives of the pater, who came to own the main lands, becoming the most powerful social class in Greek society at the time.