Editing Classical Period (section)

===The Hellenic cities===
Emerging from the remains of the fallen Mycenaean civilization was a family of roughly similar societies on the coast of the Aegean Sea. They spoke roughly the same language, shared the same pantheon of Gods and had a similar set of stories. In particular they identified with the alliance which sent a thousand ships across the sea to rescue the Princess Hellen. Thus they identified themselves as being ''Hellenes''. Thanks to the Romans we call them Greeks.

In any case, the Greeks were far from united. Instead Greece was home to a bunch of small city (''poleis'') states which were constantly at each others throats, always organizing [[Hoplite]] armies to fight each other. 

While some Hellenic city states were ruled by monarchs, they also often were Democratic. To a degree at least. Athens was most famous for it's democracy and has been cited by both Democrats and Anti-Democrats in arguments. For all of that [[Slavery|Slaves]] could not vote, nor could Metics (free non-citizen residents) or Women. Free Male Citizens made up only about 17% of the total Athenian population. They also appointed people to certain offices [[wat|by lottery]]. Even so, the tradition of representative government was strong in Athens and the citizens of Athens did have a strong conception of civic rights. Athens was not alone.