Essay On Ancient Greek

Piecing together the history of the ancient Greeks requires using a number of different sources and references. The ancient historians, such as Herodotus and Thucydides, were not omnipotent and their works did not include every relevant fact about the history of Greece. Because of this need for additional information, modern historians must refer to other sources to gain knowledge about the past. Luckily for them, the Greeks customarily inscribed a great amount of information about their politics into stone pillars, buildings, walls, etc. Through epigraphy, these inscriptions can be analyzed and subsequently provide contextual evidence for previously conceived notions, or even generate an entirely new prospective about Greek life and the politics that governed them. The purpose of this analytical essay will be to examine one such historical piece and the text presented on it in order to produce a clearer image of ancient Greek history by analyzing the information gathered. …show more content…
The decree states that any foreigner that supported the pro-democratic Athenians by amassing with them in Phyle, or joined along the way to Piraeus, should be granted citizenship for themselves and their offspring. Following this, the Athenians allowed these new citizens to diffuse into the ten tribes of Athens and become subject to the same laws that average citizens were to follow. The decree also insisted upon the allowance for those men that joined later, during the battle of Munichia which helped secure the Piraeus, to adopt the status of isoteleia (a form of half-citizenship). Also important to mention is the presence of presiding archon, Xenaenetus, and secretary, Lysiades. The mentioning of names such as these prove very helpful to historians in dating such an