preview

The Upper Class In Ancient Greece Hierarchy

Satisfactory Essays

The upper class was very small and numbered out to have about 300 families . To be considered a part of the upper class, they had to be a citizen, but they could not have a job . They had to have free from economic tasks, for example-trading. The men had to have slaves or others to tend to their land and fortune; only with that can he have time for things such as government , war, literature, and philosophy. The upper class was quite full of themselves, which lead to them using all the classes lower than them as workers to do their ‘dirty work’ for them. The first and the topmost class in Ancient Greece Hierarchy was the Upper Class which was also symbolized as the Leisure Class. They possessed the maximum power and topmost position in the society. One has to be born in Athens to be a part of the Upper Class. The Upper Class handled the government work, literature as well as the philosophy department and also the war. Athens or the Upper Class used to get slaves to perform their materialistic tasks so as to save their precious time which they can utilize for administrative purposes. Being the Superior Class they had to be totally free and away from inferior tasks such as economical trading. Being Superior from others they were not allowed to do minor tasks. Being the Upper Class was a symbol of good artistic taste, being civilized and socialized. …show more content…

Top of the social tree were the ‘best people’, the aristoi. Possessing more money than everyone else, this class could provide themselves with armour, weapons, and a horse when on military campaign. The aristocrats were often split into powerful family factions or clans who controlled all of the important political positions in the polis. Their wealth came from having property and even more importantly, the best land, i.e.: the most fertile and the closest to the protection offered by the city

Get Access