What is a Polis?
- city - state, state, city?
- polis is the basis of Greek political and social life
- polis claimed the primary loyalties of its inhabitants
- during the classical period: polis was the only form of social organization in which the individual's potential could be achieved
- polis was composed - individuals who shared common ancestors and worshiped the same gods
- polis molded the character of its inhabitants and provided a focus for their lives
- live apart from the polis = live as a beast

Politics (institutions):

- the government - was aristocratic
- kings: hereditary or elected
- the king ruled with assistance from a council (warriors - aristocrats)
- the aristocratic dominance - ended - when new military techniques were adopted => hoplite phalanx (a formation of spearmen who fought shoulder to shoulder) - infantry
- the hoplite phalanx - gave birth to the polis in its classical form
- participation of every able bodied freeman - who could afford arms and armor => men who fought for the polis - had a saying in the governance (in the politics)
- those who did not have money for the equipment => served as support troops, or in the city's galleys (most of the Greek cities had a navy)
- those who had been born in another polis - foreigners; also the women and the slaves => excluded from the political life

- democracy - difficult to achieve and implement => struggle for power (8 and 7c. B.C.) => power would be captured by tyrants or dictators (promised to resolve the struggles)
- Tyrants - developed administrative structures, weakened the old tribal loyalties; some would build temples and public works; took care of the city defense; improved the water supply

Greek Colonization:
Thalassa - greek name for the sea; without limits, the big one, the blue one; implied  feelings of fear
- the process starts - c. 750 B.C.
Causes:
- crises (changes in crops and in the type of agriculture practiced - grains replaced by olive trees and vineyards)
- surplus of population
- settlements spread - around the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea - those were organized like a polis (fully independent states) => venerated the divine patron of their founding city; governing institutions paralleled those from the mother city
- colonization was organized by the government - the best people were selected (from all classes and all professions); Delphi Oracle - was consulted; the colonists would take - sacred fire with them - for the new temple and polis
 

- Tyrants: regarded as an aberration
    - they will be overthrown => replaced by a more representative government => oligarchy or democracy ( Athens)
- Athenians will set up a new institution against potential tyrants: ostracism - from ostraka (shards) =>a potential tyrant will be exiled for 10 years