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These activities were often handled by a form of direct democracy, based on a popular assembly. Others, of judicial and official nature, were often handled by large juries, drawn from the citizen body in a process known as sortition. By far the most well-documented and studied example is the Athenian democracy in Athens.
Greek democracy created at Athens was direct, rather than representative: any adult male citizen over the age of 20 could take part, [40] and it was a duty to do so. The officials of the democracy were in part elected by the Assembly and in large part chosen by lottery in a process called sortition.
Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for perhaps 5,000 years. Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city of ancient Greece in the first millennium BC, and its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laid the foundations of Western civilization.
The Athenian Revolution (508–507 BCE) was a revolt by the people of Athens that overthrew the ruling aristocratic oligarchy, establishing the almost century-long self-governance of Athens in the form of a participatory democracy – open to all free male citizens.
A democracy is a political system, or a system of decision-making within an institution, organization, or state, in which members have a share of power. [2] Modern democracies are characterized by two capabilities of their citizens that differentiate them fundamentally from earlier forms of government: to intervene in society and have their sovereign (e.g., their representatives) held ...
In ancient Greece, an ekklesiasterion was a building specifically built for the purpose of holding the supreme meetings of the ecclesia. Like many other cities, Athens did not have an ekklesiasterion.
According to Thucydides, in 412 BC when the Samian people heard of the plot against the democracy, they went to some of their leaders, including Thrasybulus, "who seemed always to be especially opposed to the conspirators." [15] Thrasybulus and his companions then rallied the Athenian sailors to defend the Samian democracy. The conspirators ...
In the seventh and sixth centuries, Corinth and Sparta were the dominant powers of Greece. [41] The former was eventually supplanted by Athens as the main sea power, while Sparta remained the dominant land-force. [42] In 499, in the Ionian Revolt Greek cities in Asia Minor rebelled against the Persian Empire but were crushed in the Battle of ...