Ancient Greek History

Opposition to oligarchic domination brought the first Greek tyrants to power in numerous city-states. Greek tyranny represented a distinctive type of rule for several reasons. For one, although tyrants were by definition rulers who seized power by force rather than inheriting it like legitimate kings, they then established family dynasties to maintain their tyranny, with sons inheriting their fathers' position as the head of state. Also, the men who became tyrants were usually aristocrats. Tyrants sometimes preserved the existing laws and political institutions of their polis as part of their rule, thus promoting social stability. Theseus was responsible for founding the polis of Athens. Athens also had some influential aristocrats like Solon and Cleisthenes who worked to strengthen Athenian democracy for differing reasons. Reforms of Solon included annulment of all debts from contracts that enslaved the debtor and said that all free adult males were allowed to participate in the Ecclesia(assembly). Reforms of Cleisthenes, the father of democracy, included the establishment of isonomia, the equality of political rights before the law and the Boule (council of 500_ chosen from among Athens’s 10 tribes to prepare legislation and carry out administration of laws. The result of Cleisthenes reforms led to the conception of the “good life” which meant physical goods like health, beauty, strength, and wealth and spiritual goods like wisdom, justice, and courage.
Before Socrates there were Greek intellectuals who used reason and observation to find the core essence of the universe. Hippocrates, aka the father of medicine, came up with the Hippocratic oath. Then there was Eratosthenes, who was the Librarian of Alexandria. Finally, Archimedes who was a scientist and a mathematician invited a “screw” that made water rise and a pulley system and also defined “pi”.
Herodotus, aka the father of History, is known best for his contribution of the book Histories which described...