Athens: Birthplace of Democracy?
The Ancients
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The History of Democracy in the Hellenistic Period
Macedonian conquest meant that no city, including Athens, was fully independent. Large numbers of Athenians were disenfranchised so that a form of oligarchy was introduced. The word Democratia ceases to mean independent majority decision-making the poor ruling. And it comes to me more independent in the sense of not having a direct rule monarchy. But we don't really know enough to say that it was just like the old democracy of the 4th century BC.
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