T
The Daily Insight

How was Greece divided?

Author

Sarah Duran

Published Mar 18, 2026

There was never one country called ‘ancient Greece’. Instead, Greece was divided up into small city-states, like Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Olympia. Each city-state ruled itself. They had their own governments, laws and army.

What were the 3 classes of people in Greek society?

Advertisement

  • male citizens – three groups: landed aristocrats (aristoi), poorer farmers (periokoi) and the middle class (artisans and traders).
  • semi-free labourers (e.g the helots of Sparta).
  • women – belonging to all of the above male groups but without citizen rights.

What race are Greeks?

The Greeks or Hellenes (/ˈhɛliːnz/; Greek: Έλληνες, Éllines [ˈelines]) are an ethnic group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt and, to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

What is the first Greek civilization called?

Mycenaean Civilization
The Mycenaean Civilization (approximately 1900-1100 BCE) is commonly acknowledged as the beginning of Greek culture, even though we know almost nothing about the Mycenaeans save what can be determined through archaeological finds and through Homer’s account of their war with Troy as recorded in the Iliad.

Who was the lowest class of people in Greek society?

Below the metics were the freedmen or commoners of society. This group was made up of former slaves who had won their freedom and gained some basic legal and social privileges. At the very bottom of society were the slaves.

What were the lower class Greeks called?

Geōmoroi
Geōmoroi, also called agroikoi, or Geōrgoi, class of citizens in ancient Greek society. In 7th-century-bc Attic society, geōmoroi were freemen, generally peasant farm holders, lower on the social and political scale than the eupatridae, the aristocracy, but above the dēmiourgoi, the artisans.

What religion are Greeks?

The religion of Greek people is an important aspect of Greek culture. The population in mainland Greece and the Greek islands is Christian Orthodox per 90%. The religion of the rest of the population is Muslims, Catholic, Jewish and other minorities.

What is the Greek era?

ancient Greek civilization, the period following Mycenaean civilization, which ended about 1200 bce, to the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 bce. It was a period of political, philosophical, artistic, and scientific achievements that formed a legacy with unparalleled influence on Western civilization.

What was the upper class in Greece called?

Athenian society was ultimately divided into four main social classes: the upper class; the metics, or middle class; the lower class, or freedmen; and the slave class. The upper class consisted of those born to Athenian parents. They were considered the citizens of Athens.

Which class in Greece was made of slaves?

If there was any type of work that needed to be done, slaves were required. Most homes in ancient Greece had slaves to take on these menial tasks. The middle class was made up of people that may not have been born in Athens but were working hard at their trade.

Why did they stop believing in Greek gods?

Why did Greeks stop believing in the gods? – Quora. Because they believed too much. The ancient Greeks were polytheistic, which means not only that they believed in many gods, they believed in all the gods. In those times that was true of most cultures.

What caused the fall of Greece?

Here are some of the primary causes: Greece was divided into city-states. Constant warring between the city states weakened Greece and made it difficult to unite against a common enemy like Rome. The poorer classes in Greece began to rebel against the aristocracy and the wealthy.

Who did the Spartans enslave?

helots
Helot, a state-owned serf of the ancient Spartans. The ethnic origin of helots is uncertain, but they were probably the original inhabitants of Laconia (the area around the Spartan capital) who were reduced to servility after the conquest of their land by the numerically fewer Dorians.

What were slaves called in Sparta?

the helots
They were the helots, the subjugated and conquered people, the slaves of Sparta. Nobody knows exactly what the term “Helot” actually means. Some say it came from the village called Helos that was conquered by the angry Spartans.