I. Kings

Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey in about 800 BC. He was writing about earlier times (about 1600-1200 BC). In these times monarchs, or kings, ruled the people. When a king rules, the government is called a monarchy. The Greek word for king was basileus ( pronounced baasiLAYus).

The people of the highest class and with the most money were called nobles, or aristocrats. Out of all the nobles, the king had the most power. Below the nobles came freemen. They owned and farmed their own land or perhaps did a craft, like weaving. Below them were poor freemen. They worked on other peoples' land because they didn't have their own. The freeman didn't have any real power under this kind of government.

The nobles helped the king rule in a council. The king needed the nobles to support his decisions, but the nobles didn't have the power to do something he didn't want to do. In war, the king had the honor of going into battle first. The nobles came right behind him in chariots. The freemen came last.

II. Aristocracies

After the times that Homer wrote about, when kings ruled, Greece had its Dark Ages. We don't really know much about this time, but probably there wasn't much going on. If there was formal government, it was very simple. The Dark Ages lasted from about 1200 to 900 BC.

As the Greeks came out of the Dark Ages bit by bit, they began to build formal governments again. Some of them took kings again, like Sparta, but most changed to aristocracies and oligarchies.

There wasn't really much difference between monarchies and aristocracies. Instead of one aristocrat ruling as the king, the council of aristocrats ruled. The aristocrats still had all of the power.

It's not very clear why monarchies changed into aristocracies. Maybe a king wasn't a strong leader in war and the council of nobles had to take over his duties.

The common people's lives didn't change at all with aristocratic government. The freemen and poor freemen were still ruled by the noble class. They might have even become less powerful.

III. Oligarchies

Oligarchies were very similar to aristocracies. Like aristocracies, a council of people governed the state. In aristocracies, the council was made up of people of noble birth, but in oligarchies the council was made up of the richest men. A man (Women could not participate in politics) had to have a certain amount of land to be able to take part in an oligarchy. A man didn't have to be an aristocrat to participate as long as he had enough money. Although generally they were the same people, oligarchies allowed some different people to participate in government.