Citizenship In Athenian Society

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Athens Citizenship In the beginning of the sixth century BCE the idea of people playing a role in their society started to develop and later evolved into the status of people given by their government; citizenship. With citizenship came the theory of social contract, which stated that if a citizen does their part for their nation their nation shall do theirs. As the theory evolved the Roman republic focused more on how their people interacted with the other citizens and participated with their government rather than the citizen’s responsibility which was the main emphasis in the city-state of Athens. Athens had stricter guidelines to become a citizen but allowed more freedom when they have received the title of being a citizen unlike the…show more content…
Citizens have a say in society changing events a) In the Athenian society all citizens were able to voice their own opinions and agree on the actions being done in a democratic way to benefit society. b) In document D it states that each citizen writes down a name of a person who they think is becoming too powerful for their status in society and in the end the person with their name written down the most is to be ostracized. This demonstrates the act of being any citizen able to impact society by voicing their own opinion in a fair way. c) Also in document E it shows that all citizens of Athens were able to attend the meetings of the Assembly which discussed the matters of their society in a political manner this clearly shows that the citizens that attended these meetings at the Pnyx were able to interact with the laws and regulations of their own society. 2. Citizenship acceptability a) The Athenians were quite strict on their citizenship policy but this was only because they wanted a strong stable society although after they met the guidelines of becoming a citizen for Athens they gave them more freedom than the…show more content…
3. The general citizen republic can become holders of office by election a) Athens believed that a person with little wealth should have a chance in election for a position in government this shows that the un-wealthy and common people had a chance for their suggestions to be heard. b) Document B supports the decision in Athens that allowed the common/poor man to win a position in the government by an election which shows that many did not disagree with the decision for other members of society that aren’t upperclassman to be able to communicate their thoughts and observations on their society through an election of office. This support represented that they had respect for the hard workers who helped build their society and agreed with their

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