Albert Herm
Essay 1 From the years 600 BCE - 400 BCE Athens was going through major changes such as the way that their government works. Athens wasn’t a true democracy because only citizen men of the high class were able to vote. Document A, a speech given by Athenian General Pericles, supports my claim because it says “Social class is not allowed to interfere with someone’s merit, and poverty does not block the way. If a man is able to serve the state, he is not stopped by the obscurity of his condition.” Document B, an excerpt written by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, supports my claim because it says “The franchise is open to all men who are citizen birth by both parents.” Document C, a chart displaying the Athenian population, states that 29,000 citizen men are allowed to vote out of the entire population of 240,235 people. Document D, an excerpt written a professor of philology and classics at the University of Copenhagen Mogens Herman Hansen, supports my claim because it states that “Demokratia was rule by male citizens only excluding minors and maniacs only. Demokratia was rule by male citizens only, excluding women, free foreigners and slaves. Thus, by our standards it was oligarchy, not democracy.”
Document E, an excerpt written by Professor John Camp, supports my claim because it states that “There may be pitfalls. . . . One batch of 190 ostraca found in Athens, all with the name of Themistocles . . . turned out to be all written by only 13 individuals. . . .”