Lesson 4: Athenian Democracy
The Athenian Citizen
Although much is made of Athenian democracy, it is important to bear in mind that democratic rights were only available to full Athenian citizens.
The concept of citizenship in Classical Athens was very different from our modern concept of ‘citizenship’.
Only men were allowed to be citizens. Women did not have any political rights.
In one sense, Athenian women were not even considered to be fully 'Athenian'. The Greek term for Athenian women, for example, is 'hai Attikai' which roughly translates as 'women of Attica'.
Simply having been born in Athens did not qualify a person for Athenian citizenship. One actually had to be the son of an Athenian citizen.
In the latter half of the fifth century. Athenian citizenship was made even more exclusive by being restricted only to those men who had been born to Athenian mothers as well.
What all this meant in real terms was that only a minority of the population had political power.
