What is the significance of being a citizen in the hellenic world

Their transportation [of Phokion and his associates] presented a sad spectacle, as they were brought from Kerameikos to the theatre. After they had been brought there Kleitos [a supporter of the king] put them under arrest, until the magistrates called the assembly, allowing everyone access to the podium and the theatre, not preventing anyone from attending, neither slaves nor citizens who had lost their citizenship.

After that, Kleitos presented the men. Then some covered their heads and others looked down shedding tears.

Someone found the courage to stand up and say that since the king had entrusted such an important decision to the people, it was proper that the slaves and the foreigners leave.

Diokles, son of Leodamas, acting in accordance with the virtue which has been handed down to him by his ancestors , has continually shown every zeal and care for the district of the Halasarnitai. During the wars he aimed to secure the fort and those who inhabit the territory, showing the best consideration and taking upon himself every danger for its sake.

For during the Cretan War, when it was announced that the site was threatened, he arrived with many men, and making inspections together with those who had been assigned to guard the fort he asked the inhabitants to come together to the fort and to join its defense, until it occurred that the enemies abandoned their plan to attack. In the present war, as the enemies were often threatening the fort , when many naval and land forces were gathered in Astypalaia, he brought weapons and catapult missiles in order to keep the fort safe.

As soon as he reached the age of citizenship he did not stay behind the older men in making requests or serving as an ambassador for the fatherland; and remembering that his grandfathers had served as generals and having in mind the expenses which they had undertaken and what they had constructed for the adornment and the protection of the city, he courageously accepted the greatest priesthood which involves the largest expenses [emphasis mine].

The Rhodians … wish to keep the mass of the poor in good condition. And so the common people are provided with food and the wealthy support those in need according to an old tradition. In order that it becomes visible that the citizens take care of the common security in every difficult situation, may the following decree be adopted: Those citizens, illegitimate children, foreign inhabitants, and foreigners who come forward may make a promise.

The names of those who make a promise should be announced immediately in the popular assembly. The people shall take a decision through open vote concerning the size of the donation and accept it, if it approves it. See that the engraving is artistic.

Being by nature also a buffoon and a mimic, not even in the meetings of the assembly did he abstain from jeering at those who were present and from portraying certain of them, so that the common people would often break out in laughter.

The monarch should set himself apart from the human failings and approach the gods, not through arrogance, but through magnanimity and through the greatness of his virtue, surrounding himself with so much trust and authority with his appearance, his thought, his reason, the morality of his soul, the deeds, the movement, and the posture of the body, so that those who watch him shall be overwhelmed and shall be adorned with shame and wisdom and the feeling of trust.

As regards public addresses the good king needs to take care of the suitable position and appearance, forming a political and serious image of himself, so that he appears to the multitude neither harsh nor contemptible, but sweet and considerate. He shall achieve this if he is, first, majestic to watch and to listen to and seems worthy of his rule; secondly, if he is kind in conversation and in appearance and in benefactions; thirdly, if he is fearsome in his honesty and in punishing and in swiftness and, generally, in the experience and practice of kingship.

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Username Please enter your Username. They conquered huge chunks of western Asia and Egypt and pressed on into the Indus Valley. After Alexander died in B. Soon, those fragments of the Alexandrian empire had become three powerful dynasties: the Seleucids of Syria and Persia, the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Antigonids of Greece and Macedonia. The Hellenistic states were ruled absolutely by kings. By contrast, the classical Greek city-states, or polei, had been governed democratically by their citizens.

These kings had a cosmopolitan view of the world, and were particularly interested in amassing as many of its riches as they could. As a result, they worked hard to cultivate commercial relationships throughout the Hellenistic world. They imported ivory, gold, ebony, pearls, cotton, spices and sugar for medicine from India ; furs and iron from the Far East; wine from Syria and Chios; papyrus, linen and glass from Alexandria; olive oil from Athens; dates and prunes from Babylon and Damaskos; silver from Spain; copper from Cyprus; and tin from as far north as Cornwall and Brittany.

They also put their wealth on display for all to see, building elaborate palaces and commissioning art, sculptures and extravagant jewelry. They made huge donations to museums and zoos and they sponsored libraries the famous libraries at Alexandria and Pergamum, for instance and universities. The university at Alexandria was home to the mathematicians Euclid, Apollonios and Archimedes, along with the inventors Ktesibios the water clock and Heron the model steam engine.

People, like goods, moved fluidly around the Hellenistic kingdoms. Koine was a unifying cultural force: No matter where a person came from, he could communicate with anyone in this cosmopolitan Hellenistic world. At the same time, many people felt alienated in this new political and cultural landscape.

Once upon a time, citizens had been intimately involved with the workings of the democratic city-states; now, they lived in impersonal empires governed by professional bureaucrats.

Hellenistic philosophers, too, turned their focus inward. Diogenes the Cynic lived his life as an expression of protest against commercialism and cosmopolitanism. And the Stoics argued that every individual man had within him a divine spark that could be cultivated by living a good and noble life.

In Hellenistic art and literature, this alienation expressed itself in a rejection of the collective demos and an emphasis on the individual. The Hellenistic world fell to the Romans in stages, but the era ended for good in 31 B.

Octavian took the name Augustus and became the first Roman emperor.