Practice question · Sort into groups
Sort each feature: filled by lottery or by election in classical Athens?
Groups: Chosen by lot · Elected
- The ten generals (strategoi)
- Jurors for the day’s trials
- Council of 500 members
- Chief water commissioner
- Most of the ~700 administrative posts
Hints
- The rule concerns what happens when a fool holds the post.
- Military and financial roles are the exceptions.
Show the answer
Chosen by lot: Council of 500 members, Jurors for the day’s trials, Most of the ~700 administrative posts
Elected: The ten generals (strategoi), Chief water commissioner
Why
The rule of thumb: if a fool in the job merely embarrasses the city, draw lots, every citizen is fit to rule in turn. If a fool in the job sinks the fleet or dries the wells, elect.
Practise Classical Greece and the Polis
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
More questions on Classical Greece and the Polis
- Athenian democracy paid citizens to attend the assembly and to serve on juries. What problem was the payment…
- Complete the description of ostracism.
- Order the construction (and stress-testing) of the Athenian experiment.
- An ostracism only counted if enough citizens showed up to scratch a name on a potsherd. Set the quorum.
- Why did Aristotle call the lottery democratic and election aristocratic?
- Most Athenian public offices were filled by lottery rather than election.