Reforms
This institution, introduced as one of Cleisthenes' reforms, allowed Athenian citizens to vote to exile one citizen for a period of ten years.
ostracism
This lawgiver, whose name means "snake" or "serpent," introduced Athens' first law code in c. 620 BCE.
Draco
This word, used to refer to a "king" in the Archaic Period, originally referred to an official in charge of a group of workers in the Mycenaean palace economy.
basileus
This word, derived from the Greek for "rule of the few," refers to the tendency for a limited number of elite families to dominate political offices during the Archaic Period.
oligarchy
This word, probably derived for the Greek for "captive," refers to the large enslaved population of Laconia whose labor made the Spartan way of life possible. (This status existed in other places in the Peloponnese too, but Sparta has the most famous example of the phenomenon).
helots
This deliberative body, introduced by Cleisthenes, replaced the Council of Four Hundred associated with Solon's reforms.
This Athenian poet and lawgiver created four new property classes and expanded access to different public offices.
Solon
The magistrates of Sparta appointed ephebes (young men) to serve in this institution, which translates to something like "secret police."
kryptea
After their role in the Conspiracy of Cylon in c. 632 BCE, this Athenian family was regarded as polluted for generations to come.
Alcmaeonids
This is the word for free people who did not have their own land but worked for someone else's estate; Solon's fourth property class is made up of these.
thetes
This Greek word refers to the educational system put in place by Lycurgus (allegedly) to train Spartiates, or full Spartan citizens, to be perpetually ready for hoplite warfare.
agoge
According to legend, the oracle of Apollo at Delphi revealed the way to achieve eunomia, "good laws/government," to this Spartan lawgiver.
Lycurgus
ephors / the ephorate
These two sons of Pisistratus continued the golden age initiated by their father, until one of them was assassinated.
Hippias and Hipparchus
These non-citizen residents of Laconia and Messenia, referred to by Spartan citizens as "those who live around," often engaged in trade and money-handling while Spartiates trained for war.
perioeci
Solon abolished (for the future) the system in which these Athenians, whose name means "people with 1/6 share," were subject to debt slavery to a wealthier household.
hektemoroi
This reformer, who built on previous reforms, is credited with the creation of a fledgling democracy in Athens in the late 6th century.
This Mycenaean name for the "king" or "lord," namely the man in charge of a given citadel and its environs, survives in Homeric poetry as an epithet for Agamemnon.
wanax
Spartan government was unique for having two of these at a time, one each drawn from the Eurypontid and Agiad families.
kings
The legal status of these resident non-Athenians, literally "those who live with," was determined on a local basis after the various 6th-century Athenian reforms.
metics
This is the name for the people in the wealthiest property class established by Solon.
pentakosiomedimnoi
This tyrant ironically respected the rule of law and many of the reforms of Solon despite using extra-legal means to establish his own rule over Athens.
Pisistratus
This word for the Spartan body of 28 men plus the 2 kings, who determined the legislative agenda and presided over trials dealing with high crimes, literally means something like "the group of old men / elders."
gerousia
This family had a stranglehold on political offices in Corinth; ironically the tyrant Cypselus was a member of this genos.
Bacchiads
In the Archaic Period, the aristocracy used this morally and aesthetically loaded phrase to describe poorer people, in contrast to themselves.
hoi kakoi