Ancient Greece Athenian Social Groups

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Ancient GreeceAthenian Social Groups
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Athenian Social Groups
Gravestone of a woman with her slave
child-attendant,100BC
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First group Citizens

• They were men.
• They were free.
• They were over 18 years of age.
• Served in the military
• They were born from a citizen father and a mother
  who was the daughter of a citizen.
• Most of them were peasants.
• Some were rich but many of them were poor.
• They had the right to own land and rule the city
  (enter politics).

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Second group Metics

• They were free.
• They were Greeks who came from other cities
  (immigrants or foreigners), or non-Greeks.
• They could not own land.
• They had to have an Athenian sponsor.
• Many were merchants or artisans (craftsman) and
  some were very rich.

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Third group Slaves

• They were usually foreigners.
• Some were prisoners of war, while others were
  captured and sold by pirates.
• The Greeks thought of them as goods or objects.
• The children of slaves automatically became
  slaves themselves.
• Greek slaves could not buy their freedom!