Introduction

Today in Western Civilization we learned a lot about Cleisthenes. Who was born in 570 BCE and died c. 508. We learned that he is the founder of Athenian. Cleisthenes successfully allied himself with the popular Assembly against the nobles and imposed democratic reform. For all one knows his most important alteration was the form of individual political responsibility on citizenship of a place rather than on membership in a clan. Most of the Athenians had backed him up as well against Isagoras. Isagoras is the leader of the more reactionary nobles, was elected chief archon. It was at this point, according to later tradition, that Cleisthenes took the people into partnership and transformed the situation

Today I was absent in Mr. Schick’s class because I was sick. Though my friend, Lily sent me some notes she took in today’s class. Today they learned about politics/an exclusive club. Where no women, no middle class, no slaves, and sometimes even certain aristocrats were excluded. Also they learned the Greek meaning of tyrant which is someone who seized power (usually with help). Some of the rules were Draco (621 BCE), all Athenian’s (rich/poor) are equal under the law, but death is the punishment for many crimes, debt slavery is ok (work as a slave to repay debts), solon’s reforms (594 BCE), outlaws debt slavery, all Athenian citizens can speak at the assembly, and any citizen can press changes against wrongdoers.

Today in Western Civilization we learned a lot about tyrants, monarchy, and aristocrats. Tyrant means a powerful individual who seized control by appealing to the common people for support. The meaning of aristocracy is to rule by a small group of noble, very rich, landowning families. The meaning of oligarchy is like aristocracy so a small group of a rich class, royalty, or powerful military figures. What I thought was cool learning about is the tyrants we still have today. Like the North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-un. We also talked a little about Hitler and how he was a very powerful tyrant. He had concentration camps and put people in jail just for disagreeing with him or if he just doesn’t like your race, religion, or background.