Athenian women had very limited freedoms and were expected to remain in the home, while Spartan women had greater freedoms like owning property and receiving an education. Greek society was dominated by aristocratic landowners who had slaves work their lands. Only adult male landowners were considered citizens with rights; women, slaves, foreigners had few to no rights. Slavery was widespread in Greece, with slaves making up over a third of the population and working in households, farms, ships and mines. As Greece lacked good farmland, city-states resorted to conquest and colonization of lands with ports and resources, allowing trade-based economies to flourish.

1. Section 2: Greek Society and
Economy
Picture depicts Greek society. Image taken from: vector-clip-art.com

2. Women in Ancient Greece
 Athenian women were very restricted on what they
could do. They were expected to stay indoors and tend
to the house. Most Athenian women who were wealthy,
stayed at home, raised their children, and took care of
the household bills. They only went out of the house for
religious functions.
 Spartan women were much more freer than Athenian
women. They could sell property and receive an
education. They were also trained in sports, as this was
needed for them to have strong sons.

3. Greek Society
 People who were part of the aristocracy claimed that
they should hold power, because they were descendants
from God or a king. They had large plots of land and
slaves to work the land. This gave the people of the
aristocracy plenty of time to do other things.
 The citizens of Greece consisted of only one group, and
that was the adult male who owned land. There was a
large amount of rich male adult citizens, but they were
considered to be the minority. The majority of citizens
consisted of the men who owned smaller farms. Women,
children, aliens, and slaves were not considered to be
citizens. They had very little to no rights.

4. Greek Society Continued….
 Slavery was very common and acceptable practice in
Greece. By the 500s Greece’s population consisted of
more than a third of slaves. Slaves often were prisoners
of war, but sometimes they were bought from slave
traders. Finally, their own family could have placed
slaves in slavery, because they could not care for them.
Slaves greatly contributed to the economy of Greece, as
they did household work, tutored, cooked, and took
care of the children. They also worked on farms, ships,
and in mines.

5. Greek Economic Expansion
 The Greeks did not have good farmland to farm the basic
resources they needed, so they decided to find the resources
they needed.
 Most Greek city-states resorted to conquering neighboring
city-states that had farming abilities.
 Sparta managed to conquer the city-state of Messenia and
turned their people into captive workers. The captive workers
in Messenia farmed the land and provided ample crops to
maintain Sparta’s people. Once the Spartans were able to
acquire food without their people working for it, their men
were able to concentrate on building an army, which became
the most lethal army of the time.

6. Greek Economic Expansion
Continued…
 The ideal city for Greek colonization had to have a port
for docking boats and trading purposes. The city-state
should also have good farmland, as ancient economies
depended on agriculture. Finally, the city-state needed
to be by resources such as timber or materials that
could be exported.
 The usage of coins in the Greek economy was seen as an
economic revolution, because at the time, there were
few countries using coins as means of payment for
goods.

7. Economic Expansion continued…
 Athens grew rich from trading. Their workers produced
pottery, jewelry, and other trade goods to pay for the
resources they needed to maintain their growing city-
state.
 Expansion to other city-states and countries allowed
Greece to share cultural ideals. This allowed the Greek
culture as a whole to grow. This also allowed the Greek
city-states to become wealthy from trading. Finally, the
expansion allowed the Greek people to have an
opportunity to colonize lands away from their mother
country while keeping their traditional culture.